Neapolitan Composers

Place: Naples

Biography:

The Neapolitan School is a group of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy. It is considered one of the three major centers of opera in Italy, along with the Roman School and the Venetian School. The Neapolitan School is known for its association with opera, and its best-known composer is Alessandro Scarlatti, who is considered the founder of modern opera. Other significant composers of this school include Francesco Provenzale, Giambattista Pergolesi, Domenico Cimarosa, and Giovanni Paisiello. The Neapolitan School is known for its dramatic expression, emphatic naturalism, and intense chiaroscuro in painting, and for its brilliant synthesis of Pietro da Cortona’s grand manner and Venetian colour in music. The concept of Neapolitan school, or more particularly Neapolitan opera, has been questioned by some scholars, but it is beyond doubt that Naples was a significant musical center in the 18th century.