Knowra Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist whose works include the comic opera La serva padrona and the sacred Stabat Mater.
Opera buffa : A genre of Italian comic opera that developed in the eighteenth century, often using everyday characters and lively ensembles. La serva padrona became a landmark of this comic operatic tradition.
La serva padrona : A two-part comic intermezzo by Pergolesi about a servant who outmaneuvers her master and marries him. This opera made Pergolesi an enduring name in comic opera.
Jesi : A town in the Marche region of Italy, where Pergolesi was born in 1710. Pergolesi's life began in this central Italian town before he moved to Naples.
Querelle des Bouffons : A Parisian debate in the 1750s over French and Italian opera, sparked by performances of Italian comic opera. Performances of La serva padrona helped make Pergolesi a focal point in this dispute.
Pergolesi catalogue : The scholarly cataloguing of works attributed to Pergolesi, distinguishing authentic compositions from uncertain or spurious ones. Cataloguing continues to revise the boundaries of his surviving musical output.
Opera seria : A genre of Italian opera built around serious subjects, formal arias, and heroic or mythological characters. Its conventions provide a foil for the domestic comedy of La serva padrona.
Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) : Pergolesi's setting of the Stabat Mater for soprano, alto, strings, and continuo, composed near the end of his life. Its expressive vocal writing became one of the most widely circulated sacred works of the eighteenth century.
Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo : A music conservatory in Naples that trained musicians from the seventeenth century until its closure in 1743. Pergolesi studied there, gaining the musical training that launched his career.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau : A Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer who argued for the expressive power of Italian melody. Rousseau praised La serva padrona during the Parisian debate over Italian and French opera.
Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) attribution : The study of the authorship and transmission of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, a work whose authenticity is widely accepted. Its firm attribution contrasts with the uncertainty surrounding many other works linked to Pergolesi.
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