LEONARDO

LEO (1694–1744)  , more correctly LIONARDO ORONZO SALVATORE DE LEO, Italian musical composer,.,, was born on the 5th of August 1694 at S . Vito dei Normanni, near Brindisi . He became a student at the Conservatorio della pieta dei Turchini at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago . It has been supposed that he was a pupil of Pitoni and Alessandro Scarlatti, but he could not possibly have studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly influenced by their compositions . His earliest known work was a sacred drama, L'Infedeltd abbattuta, performed by his fellow-students in 1712 . In 1714 he produced, at the court theatre, an opera, Pisistrato, which was much admired . He held various posts at the royal chapel, and continued to write for the stage, besides teaching at the conservatorio . After adding comic scenes to Gasparini's Bajazette in 1722 for performance at Naples, he composed a comic opera, La Mpeca scoperta, in Neapolitan dialect, in 1723 . His most famous comic opera was Amor viral sofferenze (1739), better known as La Finta Frascatana, highly praised by Des Brosses . He was equally distinguished as a composer of serious opera, Demofoonte (1735), Farnace (1737) and L'Olimpiade (1737) being his most famous works in this branch, and is still better known as a composer of, sacred music . He died of apoplexy on the 31st of October 1744 while engaged in the composition of new airs for a revival of La Finta Frascatana . Leo was the first of the Neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpoint .

His sacred music is masterly and dignified, logical rather than passionate, and

free from the sentimentality which disfigures the work of F . Durante and G . B . Pergolesi . His serious operas suffer from a coldness and severity of style, but in his comic operas he shows a keen sense of humour . His ensemble movements are spirited, but never worked up to a strong climax . A fine and characteristic example of his sacred music is the Dixit Dominus in C, edited by C . V . Stanford and published by Novello . A number of songs from operas are accessible in modern editions . (E . J .