- Leonardo Leo
Leonardo Leo (
August 5 ,1694 –October 31 ,1744 ), more correctly Lionardo Oronzo Salvatore de Leo was an ItalianBaroque composer .Biography
Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (current
San Vito dei Normanni ,province of Brindisi ), then part of theKingdom of Naples .He became a student at the
Conservatorio della Pieta dei Turchini atNaples in 1703, and was a pupil first ofFrancesco Provenzale and later ofNicola Fago . It has been supposed that he was a pupil of Pitoni andAlessandro Scarlatti , but he could not possibly have studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly influenced by their compositions. His earliest known work was a sacred drama, "L'infedelta abbattuta", performed by his fellow-students in 1712.In 1714 he produced, at the court theatre, an
opera , "Pisistrato", which was much admired. He held various posts at the royal chapel, and continued to write for the stage, besides teaching at the conservatory. After adding comic scenes toFrancesco Gasparini 's "Bajazette" in 1722 for performance at Naples, he composed comic operas in Neapolitan such as "La’mpeca scoperta" in 1723, and "L'Alidoro" in 1740.His most famous comic opera was "Amor vuol sofferenze" (1739), better known as "La Finta Frascatana", highly praised by
De Brosses . He was equally distinguished as a composer of serious opera, "Demofoonte " (1735), "Parnace" (1737) and "L'Olimpiade " (1737) being his most famous works in this branch, and is still better known as a composer of sacred music. He died of a stroke while engaged in the composition of new arias for a revival of "La Finta Frascatana".Leo was the first of the Neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern
harmonic counterpoint . His sacred music is masterly and dignified, logical rather than passionate, and free from the sentimentality which is present in the work of Francesco Durante and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. His serious operas suffer from a coldness and severity of style, but in his comic operas he shows a keen sense of humour. His ensemble movements are spirited, but never worked up to a strong climax.A fine and characteristic example of his sacred music is the "Dixit Dominus in C", edited by CV Stanford and published by
Novello . A number of songs from operas are accessible in modern editions.External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B-QMZZzluo Choir Faculty of Philosophy] from Pula, Croatia chant Libera me
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