Giovanni Battista Draghi (Italian:
[dʒoˈvanni batˈtista ˈdraːɡi]; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), often referred to as
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Italian:
[perɡoˈleːzi; -eːsi]), was an Italian
Baroque composer,
violinist, and
organist. His best-known works include his
Stabat Mater and the opera
La serva padrona (
The Maid Turned Mistress). His compositions include
operas and
sacred music. He died of
tuberculosis at the age of 26.
Born in
Jesi in what is now the
Province of Ancona (but was then part of the
Papal States), he was commonly given the nickname "Pergolesi", a
demonym indicating in Italian the residents of
Pergola,
Marche, the birthplace of his ancestors. He studied
music in Jesi under a local musician, Francesco Santi, before going to
Naples in 1725, where he studied under
Gaetano Greco and
Francesco Feo among others. On leaving the conservatory in 1731, he won some renown by performing the
oratorio in two parts
La fenice sul rogo, o vero La morte di San Giuseppe [
it] ("The Phoenix on the Pyre, or The Death of Saint Joseph"), and the
dramma sacro in three acts,
Li prodigi della divina grazia nella conversione e morte di san Guglielmo duca d’Aquitania ("The Miracles of Divine Grace in the Conversion and Death of Saint William, Duke of Aquitaine"). He spent most of his brief life working for aristocratic patrons such as Ferdinando
Colonna, Prince of Stigliano, and Domenico Marzio
Carafa, Duke of Maddaloni.
Pergolesi was one of the most important early composers of
opera buffa (comic opera). His
opera seria,
Il prigionier superbo, contained the two-act
buffa intermezzo,
La serva padrona (
The Servant Mistress, 28 August 1733), which became a very popular work in its own right. When it was performed in
Paris in 1752, it prompted the so-called
Querelle des Bouffons ("quarrel of the comic actors") between supporters of serious French opera by the likes of
Jean-Baptiste Lully and
Jean-Philippe Rameau and supporters of new Italian comic opera. Pergolesi was held up as a model of the Italian style during this quarrel, which divided Paris's musical community for two years.
Among Pergolesi's other operatic works are his first
opera seria La Salustia (1732),
Lo frate 'nnamorato (
The brother in love, 1732, to a text in the
Neapolitan language),
L'Olimpiade (January 1735) and
Il Flaminio (1735, to a text in the Neapolitan language). All his operas were premiered in Naples, apart from
L'Olimpiade, which was first given in
Rome.
Pergolesi also wrote sacred music, including a
Mass in F and three
Salve Regina settings. The Lenten Hymn ‘God of Mercy and Compassion’ by
Redemptorist priest Edmund Vaughan is most commonly set to a tune adapted by Pergolesi. It is his
Stabat Mater (1736), however, for
soprano,
alto,
string orchestra and
basso continuo, which is his best-known sacred work. It was commissioned by the Confraternita dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo, which presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honour of the Virgin Mary. Pergolesi's work replaced the
one composed by Alessandro Scarlatti in 1724, but which was already perceived as "old-fashioned," so rapidly had public tastes changed. While classical in scope, the opening section of the setting demonstrates Pergolesi's mastery of the Italian baroque
durezze e ligature style, characterized by numerous suspensions over a faster, conjunct bassline. The work remained popular, becoming the most frequently printed musical work of the 18th century, and being arranged by a number of other composers, including
Johann Sebastian Bach, who reorchestrated and adapted it for a non-
Marian text in his
cantata Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden (
Root out my sins, Highest One),
BWV 1083.
Pergolesi wrote a number of secular instrumental works, including a
violin sonata and a
violin concerto. A considerable number of instrumental and sacred works once attributed to Pergolesi have since been shown to be misattributed. Much of
Igor Stravinsky's
ballet Pulcinella, which ostensibly reworks pieces by Pergolesi, is actually based on works by other composers, especially
Domenico Gallo. The
Concerti Armonici are now known to have been composed by
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer. Many colourful anecdotes related by Pergolesi's 19th-century biographer
Francesco Florimo were later revealed as
hoaxes.
Pergolesi died on 16 or 17 March 1736 at the age of 26 in
Pozzuoli from
tuberculosis and was buried at the
Franciscan monastery one day later.
Pergolesi was the subject of a 1932 Italian film biopic
Pergolesi. It was directed by
Guido Brignone with
Elio Steiner playing the role of the composer.