BaroqueJean-Baptiste Pergolèse
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born in Italy more than three hundred years ago.
Jean-Baptiste Pergolèse’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
And after his or her death: 1 landmark in the detailed timeline (1752).
- 1710👶 Birth
Born in Jesi on 4 January
- 1719🌍 Meanwhile
Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
- 1720📚 Trainingage 10
Enters the Poveri di Gesù Cristo conservatory in Naples
- 1731🎼 Workage 21
First works performed: a sacred drama and an opera
- 1732🎩 Careerage 22
Chapel master to Prince Ferdinando Colonna Stigliano
- 1733🎼 Workage 23
La serva padrona, comic intermezzo
- 1735🎼 Workage 25
L’Olimpiade, premiered in Rome
- 1736🕯️ Deathage 26
Dies in Pozzuoli on 16 March, aged 26
- 1752🏛️ Landmark16 years after death
La serva padrona sparks the Querelle des Bouffons in Paris
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born in Italy more than three hundred years ago. He was often ill and limped a little, but he played the violin wonderfully.
He went to study music in Naples, a big city at the foot of a volcano. He wrote a very funny little musical comedy, La serva padrona: a clever maid manages to marry her grumpy old master!
Very ill, he withdrew to a convent by the sea and composed one last masterpiece, a very moving Stabat Mater. He died at only twenty-six.
After his death he became very famous. His little comedy even started a big quarrel among musicians in Paris!
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