Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born Giovanni Battista Draghi on 4 January 1710, and became a leading composer, violinist, and organist of the Neapolitan school. In his few active years before tuberculosis killed him on 16 or 17 March 1736, he completed four operas and a handful of other works whose influence far outlasted their number. La serva padrona helped spread opera buffa across Europe; L'Olimpiade was called one of the finest opere serie of the early eighteenth century. His Stabat Mater joined the canon of sacred music's essential works. Twenty-six years, a small catalog, and a legacy…