Giovanni Pergolesi – A Complete Biography

Introduction

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) compressed a lifetime of invention into just six creative years. Born in Jesi in the Papal States and dead by his mid-twenties near Naples, he helped crystallize the sound world of opera buffa and left one of the most beloved sacred works of the 18th century, the Stabat Mater. His brief career, posthumous fame, and the swirl of spurious attributions around his name make him a singular figure of the late Baroque.

Childhood

Pergolesi—also known in contemporary sources as Giovanni Battista Draghi, the family’s surname before the toponym Pergolesi (from their ancestral town of Pergola) caught on—was born in Jesi on 4 January 1710. He grew up in a modest household, and early accounts emphasize fragile health in childhood. Local training in violin and composition quickly revealed unusual gifts.

After early exposure to music in Jesi through church and town performances, his promise and family support opened the path south to Naples—then one of Europe’s great musical capitals.

Youth

Around his early teens, Pergolesi moved to Naples to study at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, receiving rigorous training with leading Neapolitan masters Gaetano Greco, Leonardo Vinci, and Francesco Durante. Those years formed his musical language: a supple, vocal style, keen dramatic timing, and lucid counterpoint. He soon produced sacred dramas and oratorios, including the dramma sacro La conversione e morte di San Guglielmo (1731).

Adulthood

Success came fast. In 1732, Pergolesi was appointed maestro di cappella to the Prince of Stigliano; by 1734, he had become deputy maestro di cappella for the city of Naples. The same period brought a rapid succession of stage and church commissions that secured his reputation among Neapolitan patrons and theaters.

His debut with the opera seria La Salustia (1732) was followed by his first comic triumph Lo frate ’nnamorato (1732) at the Teatro dei Fiorentini. After the Roman premiere of L’Olimpiade (Carnival 1735, Teatro Tordinona), he returned to Naples to present the warmly received Il Flaminio (1735). Political shifts in Naples complicated his patrons’ fortunes, but Pergolesi continued composing at a remarkable pace despite declining health.

Major Compositions

Opera and Intermezzi.
Pergolesi’s watershed moment came with the intermezzo La serva padrona (1733), originally performed between the acts of his opera seria Il prigionier superbo. The work’s economy, rhythmic vitality, and sharply drawn characters made it a template for opera buffa. A 1752 Paris revival ignited the celebrated Querelle des Bouffons, pitting admirers of the new Italian style against defenders of French tradition—proof of Pergolesi’s outsized posthumous impact.

He also excelled in opera seria and comic opera: Adriano in Siria (1734) with an intermezzo later known as Livietta e Tracollo; L’Olimpiade (1735), one of the earliest and most admired settings of Metastasio’s text; and Il Flaminio (1735), a Neapolitan-dialect “commedeja pe’ mmuseca.”

Sacred Music.
Pergolesi’s sacred catalogue—two Masses, Vesper psalms, cantatas, and Marian pieces—achieved wide circulation. His Stabat Mater (1736) is the touchstone: composed during his final illness for a Neapolitan confraternity to replace Alessandro Scarlatti’s setting, it pairs soprano–alto duet writing with instrumental intimacy and operatic expressivity. He also composed multiple Salve Regina settings that show the same lyrical immediacy in miniature.

Authenticity & Misattributions.
Pergolesi’s immediate posthumous fame triggered a flood of spurious attributions—a problem modern critical editions have worked to untangle. Even Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella drew on pieces then credited to Pergolesi that later proved to be by other composers. A famous example is the set of Concerti Armonici, long assigned to Pergolesi but definitively shown to be by the Dutch noble Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer.

Death

By 1735, tuberculosis had forced Pergolesi to withdraw to a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli, near Naples, where he completed the Stabat Mater. He died in mid-March 1736—most sources give 16 March, while some local histories record 17 March—and was first buried in a common grave before later commemorations moved his memorial within the cathedral.

Conclusion

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s legacy lies not in quantity but in clarity and character: comedy infused with humanity, sacred music sung with intimate pathos, and a melodic instinct that pointed beyond the Baroque. His La serva padrona reframed theatrical conventions; his Stabat Mater became an 18th-century touchstone; and his name—however clouded by apocrypha—still signals a new ease and directness in Italian vocal style. The ongoing work of scholars and editors has restored the authentic core of a career that changed European music in just a handful of years.