Full Immersion

GIUSEPPE PENNISI reports on
'La Salustia' and 'La Serva Padrona'
from the Pergolesi Festival

Very little is known about Giovanni Battista Draghi (or Drago, according to certain sources), generally known as Pergolesi. He was born in Jesi, also the birthplace of Gaspare Spontini, on 4 January 1710 to a poor family (and most likely affected by many hereditary diseases). At a young age he left the small and pleasant little town on the Marche hills near the Adriatic Coast to move to Naples. There he studied at the San Pietro in Majella Conservatory. Upon graduation, he found employment as a musician and composer with a family, the Maddaloni, closely linked to the Austrians and thus not on good terms with the new powers-to-be in Naples (the Spaniards)...

ITALY