During the 1700s. Naples hosted one of the most original, brilliant and above all revolutionary musicians of the time: John Baptist Dragons, known by the name of Pergolesi.

The artist's life was a very bright meteor. Suffering from spina bifida, he died at the age of only twenty-six because of the serious health problems from which he had suffered since birth, but after his death his fame spread throughout Europe. Around the events of his life arose stories and anecdotes that made his figure, a true legend.

He inspired poets and artists of the next century as well as great musicians who were literally dazzled by the talent of the most important exponent of the Neapolitan school of that time.

Pergolesi's rising star

Giovanni Battista Draghi was born in the Marche region of Italy, in Jesi, in 1710. Despite his real first name, the young man along with his entire family was affixed from an early age with the name Pergolesi because of the origins of his grandfather who was precisely a shoemaker from Pergola. The young man studied organ and violin at the Conservatory in his hometown where he was immediately noted for his talent.

As early as 1725, at the age of 15, he moved to Naples to pursue his studies and musical career. In fact, thanks to the patronage of Marquis Cardolo Maria Pianetti, he was accepted at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, where he distinguished himself as an excellent violinist of the Neapolitan school of music.

Such was his mastery that only four years later he had even become a chieftaincy, title assimilated to first violin, that is, charged with leading and coordinating a small instrumental group of the orchestra known as the paranza. It is said that his talent during musical performances was so exceptional and profitable that the young man never had to pay tuition for his studies at the conservatory.

He graduated in 1731, performing during his final recital a work he composed: the sacred drama The wonders of divine grace in the conversion and death of St. William, Duke of Aquitaine. 

His fame among the theaters of Naples and Pozzuoli.

During his studies Pergolesi had already worked on another of his compositions: The phoenix at the stake, or the death of St. Joseph, thanks to which he was immediately commissioned to write the serious opera La Salustia, to be performed at one of Naples' major theaters, the San Bartolomeo. However, the opera suffered numerous vicissitudes, including the sudden death of the protagonist, which delayed its staging, which in fact took place in 1732.

Meanwhile, the artist was hired as chapel master by one of the elected officials of the Neapolitan municipality, Prince Ferdinando Colonna of Stigliano, with whom he composed other serious and liturgical works.

Composed for the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples, the opera buffa Lo frate 'nnamurato whose first version was accompanied by a short untitled interlude, to a libretto by G. A. Federico. Later it was also replicated at the San Bartolomeo Theater. It was in the latter theater that in 1733, the famous Servant Mistress, as an interlude to the serious work The proud prisoner. Later, in a 1734 document signed by the Prince of Stigliano and others, he was recognized as the replacement and successor of the City of Naples' chapel master, Domenico Sarro.

Pergolesi was then called to Rome by the dukes of Maddaloni to conduct the Mass in F major in honor of St. John of Nepomuk. He returned to Naples and was employed in the service of the House of Maddaloni by Duke Domenico Marzio VIII Carafa. To him was presumably dedicated the Sonata in F major, a work for cello and continuo, attributed to Pergolesi.

After his success in Rome, he was called back to the capital in 1735 and commissioned to write the opera Olympiad, performed at the Tor di Nona Theater in Rome, to a libretto by Metastasio. Apparently, the opera was not understood by the audience and the musician was attacked and insulted during the performance.

Thus Pergolesi returned to Naples, where instead he was granted the position of supernumerary organist at the royal chapel. There he composed his Hello queen in C minor, while for the New Theater, he finished the Flaminio On a text by Frederick in 1735.

Finally, from the Confraternity of St. Louis of Palazzo under the title of the Virgin of Sorrows, Pergolesi was commissioned to write his last and perhaps most venerable work: the Stabat mater, finished in the Monastery of the Capuchin Fathers in Pozzuoli. 

Pergolesi's famous musical scherzo and its connection to Pozzuoli

In 1736, when he was just twenty-six years old, Pergolesi died of tuberculosis at the Monastery of the Capuchin Fathers in Pozzuoli. Yet it is said that until his last day, the talented young artist engaged in the composition of his celebrated music to such an extent that the Stabat mater, his last work, was finished on the very day of his death.

It is said that through music the great artist found love and joy in life. So to the Capuchin fathers, the young man left a nice musical joke: the Venerabilis barba capuccinorum, for tenor and bass. It joked about the fact that no razor could touch precisely the venerable beard of the Capuchin friars. A copy of the work is now preserved in Naples at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella and in the collection of the Accademia degli Spensierati in Florence.

As evidence of the pride and heartfelt respect that Puteolians have for this great artist, a bust of Pergolesi can be seen today on display in the urban park of the Italo Balbo Villa. The artist was buried in the city's cathedral, the Basilica of St. Prokulus.

Pergolesi and the Prince of Sansevero

In the service of the Prince of Stigliano, Ferdinando Colonna, Pergolesi got to know not only the Duke of Maddaloni but also another important aristocratic figure of the time: Prince Raimondo di San Severo. Due to the great success and inestimable value of his works, the artist was commissioned to compose a serenade for the wedding of the prince of San Severo to his noble bride Carlotta Gaetani of Aragon.

The wedding date was set for the first day of December 1735, and the artist had already begun work on the composition when his health deteriorated and Pergolesi had to give up work and take refuge at the Monastery of the Capuchin Fathers in Pozzuoli.

Of the music, of which he succeeded in composing the first part, only the libretto was found. So many of Pergolesi's musical works were lost, just as many were written under his example but attributed to anonymous people. Lost music that is still being studied today to try to fully understand the great genius of this artist.

In 2008, precisely at the Sansevero Chapel, the third centenary of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's birth was celebrated by performing the Cantata for the marriage of the Prince of San Severo. Such a musical performance was articulated by offering not only The happy time, the first part of the serenade composed by Pergolesi, but also other pieces offered precisely to celebrate the friendship between this artist and the enlightened patron Prince Raimondo di Sansevero.

Pergolesi's grandiose and echoing fame.

After his death, Pergolesi's fame reached Paris, where in 1752 his opera Servant Mistress But it also spread an aggressive criticism dubbed the la querelles des bouffons, a dispute between the more conservative faction of French theater composers who rejected the new musical currents of the Neapolitan school of which Pergolesi was the greatest exponent and which were being confirmed throughout Europe.

Moreover, this revolutionary current was supported by prominent Enlightenmentists, foremost among them Rousseau. It was the latter who judged as perfect the composition of the Stabat mater, the text of which is even reworked into a part of a composition by Bach.