Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Pergolesi

| image1 = Pergolesi caricatura di P.L.Ghezzi.png | alt1 = | link1 = | thumbtime1 = | caption1 = "Pergolese music composer who came to Rome on 20 May 1734"
(The British Museum)

| image2 = Pergolesi, compositor.png | alt2 = | link2 = | thumbtime2 = | caption2 = "Signor Pergolese, Neapolitan music composer, who is clever indeed and died in Naples on 7 February 1736, and had suffered greatly with his left leg which made him walk with a limp)."
(Vatican Apostolic Library)

| footer_background = #FFFFF0 | footer_align = left | footer = The two caricature sketches by Pier Leone Ghezzi (the latter evidently derived from the former) are "the only two authentic portraits of the musician that have come down to us. The marked features of the face are very far from subsequent idealizations: pronounced deformity of the left leg is also shown, a sign of probable previous poliomyelitis [...]". }}

Giovanni Battista Draghi (; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), usually referred to as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (), was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and organist, leading exponent of the Baroque; he is considered one of the greatest Italian musicians of the first half of the 18th century and one of the most important representatives of the Neapolitan school.

Despite his short life and few years of activity (he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26), he managed to create works of high artistic value and historical importance, among which we remember ''La serva padrona'' (''The Maid Turned Mistress''), of the highest importance for the development and diffusion of the opera buffa in Europe, ''L'Olimpiade'', considered one of the masterpieces of the opera seria of the first half of the eighteenth century, and the ''Stabat Mater'', among the most important works of sacred music of all time. Provided by Wikipedia