Who Was Who In The Old Conservatories
Timelines of the Various Maestros
Along with Brief Histories of their Institutions The Loreto
The orphanage of Santa Maria di Loreto was founded in 1535 in the poor fishermen’s district of Naples. Both boys and girls were taken in until a separate school for girls opened in 1543. Children were taught various trades, which included music after the hiring of professional music teachers (between 1630 and 1640). From 1644 onward, boys able to pay tuition could also enroll. During the eighteenth century the conservatory be- came one of Europe’s finest schools of music. The unsettled times caused by the Napoleanic wars led to Ferdinand IV req- School Uniform uisitioning the conservatory’s building in 1797 for use as a mili- tary hospital. Teachers and students moved to the conservatory of Sant’Onofrio. Finally, in 1806, the remants of Sant’Onofrio and S. M. di Loreto combined with the Pietà dei Turchini to create the new Royal College of Music. Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto
First Masters Second Masters
Don Pietro Bartilotti 1689 1690 Nicola Acerbo Gaetano Veneziano 1695
1705 Don Giuliano Perugino Don Giuliano Perugino 1716 Giovanni Veneziano
Francesco Mancini 1720
1737 Giovanni Fischietti Nicola Porpora 1739 1741 Francesco Durante 1742 Pierantonio Gallo 1755 Gennaro Manna (with Gallo) 1756 1761 Antonio Sacchini 1762 Fedele Fenaroli Fedele Fenaroli 1777 Saverio Valente Giacomo Tritto 1797 Giovanni Paisiello 1806 Fedele Fenaroli S. M. di Loreto loses its building and moves to S. Onofrio. Niccolò Zingarelli 1813 S. M. di Loreto merges with the Pietá to form the Real Collegio di Musica. The Onofrio
A religious society of craftsmen and merchants in the garment trade was formed in 1578 in connection with the church of Sant’Onofrio a Porta Capuana (i.e., “near the Capuan Gate”). In 1588 this group bought a large building for the purpose of starting an orphanage, which appears to have become well es- tablished by around 1600. An local insurrection led to reprisals in 1647, and a plague in 1656 further weakened the institution. In 1668 the school was taken over by the Scolopi Fathers, who if not very enlightened, nonetheless ensured an orderly adminis- tration. Almost one fifth of the students were castrati, who slept School Uniform and ate apart from the other students. Conditions declined dur- ing the Napoleanic period, and only thirty students remained when the conservatory merged with that of Santa Maria di Lo- reto in 1797. Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio a Porta Capuana
First Masters Second Masters
Don Angelo Durante 1690 Nicola Sabini 1699 Don Angelo Durante 1702 Nicola Fago 1704 Matteo Marchetti 1708 1710 Francesco Durante 1711 Nicola Grillo Don Andrea Amendola 1714 Nicola Porpora 1715 1721 1722 Ignazio Prota Francesco Feo 1723 Leonardo Leo 1739 1742 Girolamo Abos 1744 Francesco Durante 1745 1748 1755 Carlo Cotumacci 1760 Joseph Doll Carlo Cotumacci 1774 Giacomo Insanguine Giacomo Insanguine 1785 1793 Salvatore Rispoli Giacomo Furno 1795 Salvatore Rispoli 1797 S. Onofrio merges with S. M. di Loreto The Poveri
A plague in 1589 may have led a Franciscan friar to seek aid for the resulting orphans. Documents from 1596 show this Mar- cello Fossataro petitioning the church for official sanction and protection of his orphanage of I Poveri di Gesù Cristo. That recognition comes in 1602 with stipulations that call for training in Christian doctrine, reading, and writing. Further, no boys under seven years of age may be enrolled (the reason given be- ing the absence of women to care for such small children), nor boys with contagious diseases (perhaps a memory of the plague years). The orphanage was near the home of the Filippini Fa- thers, a powerful religious order with connections to the Pope. School Uniform They tried, among other unfriendly acts, to suppress singing at the orphanage. Conditions deteriorated, both financially and scholastically, and during the time when Francesco Durante was a master at the school, the school chancellor invited in the “storm troopers” of the archbishop to stamp out dissent. One student was actually killed by these enforcers. By 1743 condi- tions were so bad that the Church closed the institution and sent the remaining students to other conservatories. Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesú Cristo
First Masters Second Masters
Don Gennaro Ursino 1688 1691 Don Matteo Giordano Gaetano Greco 1695 Don Matteo Giordano 1700 Don Ottavio Campanile Don Nicolo Ceva 1706 Gaetano Greco 1710 1714 Bernardino Ferraro
1718 Gerolamo Ferraro Don Matteo Giordano Domenico Giordano 1727 Baldassare Infantes Leonardo Vinci Francesco Durante 1728
Francesco Feo 1738 Alfonso Caggi
1742 Girolamo Abos 1743
The Poveri closes. Its students enter the Pietá. The Pietà
The orphanage of Santa Maria della Pietà dei Turchini was founded in 1592 in a church to which was moved a statue of the Virgin Mary of the Pietà, hence the first part of the name. The second part comes from the solid blue color of the children’s uniforms—turchina or “turquoise.” After the hiring in 1622 of the composer and organist Giovanni Maria Sabino as “first mas- ter,” training in music became central. The Pietà was the most financially secure and best managed of the Neapolitan conser- vatories and the only one of them to survive intact through the Napoleanic dislocations. The appointment of Saverio Mattei, School Uniform a man of letters, to the post of overseer in 1795 led to the es- tablishment of the modern conservatory library and helped to preserve an enormous collection of manuscripts from the other conservatories and from the city’s opera theaters. Conservatorio della pietà dei Turchini
First Masters Second Masters
Francesco Provenzale 1673 1675 Don Gennaro Ursino
Don Gennaro Ursino 1701 Andrea Basso Nicola Fago 1705 1718 Don Giacomo Sarcuni
1732 Andrea Basso 1734 Leonardo Leo 1737 Lorenzo Fago Leonardo Leo 1740 Lorenzo Fago 1744 1745 Giovan Gualberto Brunetti
1754 Girolamo Abos 1759 Pasquale Cafaro
1787 Nicola Sala Nicola Sala 1793 Giacomo Tritto Giacomo Tritto 1799