In music history, the Neapolitan School is a group, associated with opera, of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy,Don Michael Randel (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music, p. 549. . the best known of whom is Alessandro Scarlatti, with whom "modern opera begins".Paul Henry Lang (1997). Music in Western Civilization, p. 453. . Francesco Provenzale is generally considered the school's founder. Other significant composers of this school are Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Niccolò Piccinni, Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello. It also addressed other musical genres, particularly the oratorio and the concerto.
The Neapolitan School has been considered in between the Roman School and the Venetian School in importance.
However, "The concept of Neapolitan school, or more particularly Neapolitan opera, has been questioned by a number of scholars. That Naples was a significant musical center in the 18th century is beyond doubt. Whether the composers working in Naples at that time developed or partook of a distinct and characteristic musical style is less clear" since so little is known about the repertory.
Background In the second half of the 17th century, a more purist and classicist style began in Naples, with simplified plots and more cultured and sophisticated operas. At that time, Naples was a Spanish possession, and opera enjoyed the patronage of the Spanish viceroys, especially the Count of Oñate. Neapolitan opera introduced numerous innovations to the genre, including the differentiation between opera seria and opera buffa. Its founder, principal representative, and introducer of the main operatic reforms was the Palermo-born Alessandro Scarlatti. The school lasted until the end of the 18th century and practically disappeared with the advent of Romanticism.
Characteristics The birth of the Neapolitan School is situated in the Baroque period. When it emerged, less than a century had passed since the birth of opera, as an initiative of a circle of scholars, the Camerata Fiorentina, who, upon discovering that ancient Greek theater was sung, had the idea of setting dramatic texts to music. Thus, Jacopo Peri created Dafne (1597), followed by Euridice (1600), by the same author. Between the 17th century and the first half of the century, the Baroque developed, a period in which cultivated music was reserved for social elites but produced new and rich musical forms, and saw the establishment of a proper language for opera, which gained richness and complexity not only in compositional and vocal methods but also in theatrical and scenic production. Baroque opera stood out for its complicated, ornate, overloaded scenery, with sudden changes and complex lighting and sensory effects. Numerous sets were used, up to fifteen or twenty scene changes per performance. The taste for solo voices began, mainly high ones (tenor, soprano), which paralleled the phenomenon of the castrati, singers who, standing out as children for their voice, were castrated before puberty so that their voice would not change, thus maintaining a high voice close to the female one.
In Italy, after the first experiences of the Camerata Fiorentina, the Venetian school stood out, the first place where music detached from religious or aristocratic protection to be performed in public venues. In Venice emerged the concept of bel canto, which became popular especially in the 19th century.
After Venice, the focus of operatic creation centered on Naples. Among the main innovations of Neapolitan opera is the differentiation between two types of recitative: secco, a declaimed song with basso continuo accompaniment; and accompagnato, a melodic song with orchestral music. Comic characters were eliminated, which in turn led to the inclusion of comic intermezzi that, already in the 18th century, gave rise to opera buffa.
The main innovations were introduced by Alessandro Scarlatti: he created the three-part aria (da capo aria), with a theme-variation-theme (ABA) structure; theatricalized the siciliana aria (infusing it with the passionate melodic style of his native Palermo); reduced vocal ornamentations and eliminated improvisations often performed by singers; he also reduced recitatives and lengthened arias, in a recitative-aria alternation, and added a type of shorter arias (cavatina) to give greater speed to the work, performed by secondary characters; on the other hand, together with his usual librettist, Apostolo Zeno, he eliminated comic characters and interleaved plots, following only the original story.
For musical education, there were four conservatories in Naples at the end of the 17th century: Pietà dei Turchini, Santa Maria de Loreto, I Poveri di Gesù Cristo, and Sant'Onofrio a Capuana. Operatic performances began in the theater of the Viceregal Palace of Naples, until the Teatro San Bartolomeo was inaugurated in 1620, which closed after the creation of a larger new theater: the Teatro San Carlo, inaugurated in 1737, one of the most prestigious in the world. There were also other minor theaters: Teatro dei Fiorentini (1709), Teatro Nuovo (1724–1878), Teatro del Fondo (1779, current Mercadante), and Teatro San Ferdinando (1790).
Beginnings
One of the first composers of the school was Francesco Provenzale, author of Lo schiavo di sua moglie (1672) and Difendere l'offensore overo La Stellidaura vendicante (1674). Alessandro Stradella is also considered a precursor of this type of opera, despite composing most of his operas in Genoa: Trespolo tutore (1677), La forza dell'amor patterno (1678), La gare dell'amor eroico (1679).
Its main representative was Alessandro Scarlatti, who was maestro di cappella for Christina, Queen of Sweden and the Viceroy of Naples, as well as director of the Teatro San Bartolomeo. 114 operas by Scarlatti are known, among which stand out: Il Mitridate Eupatore (1707), Tigrane (1715), Il trionfo dell'onore (1718), and Griselda (1721). His son Domenico Scarlatti also composed operas: L'Ottavia restituita al soglio (1703), La Dirindina (1715).
Another outstanding exponent was Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. He died at twenty-six but had a successful career. In 1732 he composed his first opera, La Salustia, which failed, and Lo frate 'nnamorato, of comic genre, which achieved notable success. The following year he premiered Il prigionier superbo, in whose intermedios the comic work La serva padrona was performed, which achieved more success than the main work. In 1734 he composed Adriano in Siria, with libretto by Pietro Metastasio, in whose intermedios the comic work Livietta e Tracollo was performed, which achieved more success than the main work. The following year he premiered L'Olimpiade, still with libretto by Metastasio, and his last work, Il Flaminio, of comic genre, which achieved notable success.
Nicola Porpora was a singing teacher—he had as students Farinelli and Caffarelli—and composition—among his disciples was Johann Adolph Hasse. He was one of the first to set librettos by Pietro Metastasio to music. Among his early operas are Agrippina (1708), Arianna e Teseo (1714), and Angelica (1720). In 1726 he moved to Venice and, in 1733, to London, where he was musical director of the Opera of the Nobility located at the King's Theatre, where he premiered Arianna in Nasso (1733). Later he worked in Dresden, where he premiered Filandro (1747), as well as Vienna, before returning to Naples, where he died in poverty.
Other distinguished representatives were Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, and Giovanni Bononcini. Vinci debuted at twenty-three with Lo cecato fauzo (The False Blind Man, 1719). In 1722 he composed Li zite 'ngalera (The Lovers in the Galley), of comic genre. That same year he achieved great success with Publio Cornelio Scipione, which led him toward opera seria. In 1724 he renewed his success with Farnace, which took him to Rome and Venice. Followed by Didone abbandonata and Siroe, re di Persia, both from 1726 and with libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Until his death in 1730 he composed two operas per year, among which stand out Alessandro nell'Indie and Artaserse, both from 1730 and again with librettos by Metastasio.
Leo was an organist and church musician. His first opera was Il Pisistrate (1714), at nineteen. In 1725 he was appointed organist of the viceroy's chapel in Naples. His works were more conservative than those of Vinci and Porpora, largely based on counterpoint. Among them stands out (1737), with libretto by Metastasio. He also composed several comic operas, to which he gave respectability by the effort put into them.
Bononcini had great initial success with Il trionfo di Camilla (1696, with libretto by Silvio Stampiglia), which was performed in nineteen Italian cities. In 1697 he settled in Vienna, in the service of Emperor Joseph I, until in 1719 he was hired by the Royal Academy of Music in London. Among his works stand out (1701), Griselda (1722), and (1737).
Also worth mentioning: Francesco Feo (L'amor tirannico, 1713; Siface, 1723; Ipermestra, 1724), Gaetano Latilla (Angelica e Orlando, 1735) and Francesco Mancini (L'Alfonso, 1699; Idaspe fedele, 1710; Traiano, 1721).
Lastly, Francesco Durante should be mentioned, a distinguished composer who was one of the few of his time who did not dedicate himself to opera. He was a teacher at the Conservatorio Sant'Onofrio in Naples, where he had as students Pergolesi, Piccinni, Jommelli, and Paisiello. He preferred religious music, as well as sonatas, toccatas, concertante quartets, and concertos, with a somewhat austere but greatly elegant and clear style, pointing toward classical forms.
Opera seria and buffa
Around the second quarter of the 18th century, opera gradually divided into two opposing genres: opera seria and opera buffa. The themes of opera seria were generally drawn from classical mythology, with a moralistic component, showing the most virtuous side of ancient heroes. Generally, the action centered on recitatives and arias were left for lyrical incursions by singers, with preference for the da capo aria, which lived its golden age. Opera seria sought to strip lyric dramas of the extravagances and convoluted plots used until then, with a soberer style inspired by ancient Greek theater.
However, the disappearance of comic characters left a certain void in a sector of the public, generally lower class, who liked these characters. To satisfy them, intermezzi were introduced in the entr'actes of the works, which gradually gained success until they became separate works. A good example was La serva padrona by Pergolesi (1733). From then on, these intermezzi became independent and turned into their own spectacles. Opera buffa was comic genre, intended for a more popular audience, with influence from commedia dell'arte. It included arias and recitatives, but with second-tier performers, who sang with their natural voices, without castrati or sopranos. The arias were shorter and the recitatives maintained music, unlike Spanish zarzuela or German singspiel, which included spoken parts only. There were also duets, trios, and quartets, absent from opera seria. The music, generally strings, was simple, from small orchestras, although over time it would equal that of opera seria. Over time, both genres tended to merge, giving rise to opera semiseria or dramma giocoso.
In the field of opera seria, Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta stood out. Jommelli premiered his first operas in Naples: L'errore amoroso (1737), Ricimero (1740), and Astianatte (1741). After gaining fame for these works, he was appointed maestro di cappella at St. Peter's Basilica in 1749 and, four years later, the same position in Stuttgart, for the Duke of Württemberg. In Germany he composed thirty-three operas, and his style became so Germanized that upon returning to his homeland his works were rejected by the public.