Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Triumph of Judith
, a ceiling fresco in the treasury of the
church of the Certosa di San Martino.
Giordano's contemporary Francesco Solimena (1657-1747)
was also influenced by Ribera, although his use of shadow and solid form showed a clear-
er link with Caravaggio. Solimena would also become an icon of Neapolitan baroque, and
his lavish compositions - among them the operatic fresco
Expulsion of Eliodoro from the
Temple
in the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo - represented an accumulation of more than half a
century of experimentation and trends, spanning Preti and Giordano himself.
» La Mortella, Ischia
The Neapolitan Score
In the 1700s, Naples was the world's opera capital, with industry heavyweights flocking
south to perform at the majestic Teatro San Carlo. Locally trained greats like Francesco
Durante (1684-1755), Leonardo Vinci (1690-1730) and Tommaso Traetta (1727-79)
wowed conservatories across Europe. Naples' greatest composer, Alessandro Scarlatti
(1660-1725), trained at the esteemed conservatory at the Chiesa della Pietà dei Turchini
on Via Medina, which also gave birth to the renowned music group Pietà de' Turchini.
Creator of around 100 operatic works, Scar-
latti also played a leading role in the develop-
ment of
opera seria
(serious opera), giving the
world the three-part overture and the aria de
capo.
Running parallel to the high-brow
opera ser-
ia
was
opera buffa
(comic opera). Inspired by
the Neapolitan commedia dell'arte, the genre
began life as light-hearted, farcical interludes -
intermezzi
- performed between scenes of
heavier classical operas. Kick-started by Scarlatti's
Il Trionfe Dell'onore
(The Triumph of
Honour) in 1718, the contemporary interludes soon developed into a major, crowd-pleas-
ing genre, with homegrown favourites including Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's
La Serva
Padrona
(The Maid Mistress), Niccolò Piccinni's
La Cecchina
and Domenico Cimarosa's
Il Matrimonio Segreto
(The Clandestine Marriage).
The region's diaspora turned Neapolitan tunes
into the most internationally recognisable
form of Italian music. When the sheet music
to the Italian national anthem was lost at the
1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, the orches-
tra broke into
O Sole Mio
instead… It was the
only Italian melody that everyone knew.
