Leonardo Leo

Leonardo Leo studied at Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini. Training under Francesco Provenzale and Nicola Fago is recorded. Ignazio Fiorillo, Pasquale Cafaro and Niccolò Piccinni are recorded as having studied under Leonardo Leo. The recorded working language is Italian. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera.

Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (currently known as San Vito dei Normanni, province of Brindisi) in the Apulia region, then part of the Kingdom of Naples. He became a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Francesco 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'infedeltà 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 conservatory. After adding comic scenes to Francesco Gasparini's Bajazette in 1722 for performance at Naples, he composed comic operas in Neapolitan such as La'mpeca scoperta in 1723, and L'Alidoro in 1740. His most famous comic opera was Amor vuol sofferenza (1739), better known as La Finta Frascatana, highly praised by De 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 a stroke while engaged in the composition of new arias for a revival of La Finta Frascatana. Leo was the first of the Neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpoint.

• Il Pisistrato (Naples, 13 May 1714) • Eumene (Reggio Emilia, May Fair 1714, collaboration with composer Francesco Gasparini) • Sofonisba (Naples, Royal Palace of Naples, 22 January 1718) • Cajo Gracco (Naples, Royal Palace of Naples, 19 April 1720) • Arianna e Teseo (Naples, 26 November 1721) • Bajazette (Naples, Royal Palace of Naples, 28 August 1722) • Tamerlano (Rome, 1722) • Timocrate (Venice, Teatro San Angelo, Carnival 1723) • Zenobia in Palmira (Naples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 1725) • Astianatte (1725) • La somiglianza (Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini, 1726) • L'Orismene, overo dagli sdegni gli amori (Naples, Teatro Nuovo, 1726) • Ciro riconosciuto (1727) • Argene (1728) • La zingara (intermezzo, 1731) • Intermezzi per l'Argene (1731) • Catone (Venice, 1732) • Demetrio (Maples, Teatro San Bartolomeo, 1732) • Amore dà senno (Naples, Teatro Nuovo, 1733) • Emira (with intermezzi by Ignazio Prota, 1735) • La clemenza di Tito (1735) • Onore vince amore (Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini, 1736) • La simpatia del sangue (1737) • Siface (1737) • L'Olimpiade (1737) • Amor vuol sofferenza 1739 • Festa teatrale (1739) • La contesa dell'Amore e della virtù (1740) • Scipione nelle Spagne (1740) • L'Alidoro (1740) • Achille in Sciro (1740) • Alessandro (1741) • Demoofonte (1741) • L'impresario delle Isole Canarie (1741) • Andromaca (1742) • L'ambizione delusa (Leo) 1742 (opera seria) • Decebalo (Leo) 1743 • Vologeso (1744) • La finta Frascatana (1744) Undated operas: • Artaserse • Lucio Papirio • Evergete • Il matrimonio anascoso • Alessandro nell'Indie • Il Medo • Nitocri, regina di egitto • Il Pisistrate • Il trionfo di Camillo • Le nozze di Psiche