DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

676 LEO LEO
vols., i.-iii. Cassel, 1855-56 ; iv.-vi. Hamburg,
1860. This is an entirely different work from
the foregoing, and though often extravagant
in expression, has a certain value from the
enthusiasm of the writer and the unwearied
manner in which he has collected facts of all
kinds about Beethoven's works. It contains a
Life, an Essay on Beethoven's style, a detailed
analysis of every one of his works in order,
with various Lists and Catalogues not without
use to the student, though in regard to the
chronology of Beethoven's works, the minute
investigations of Thayer and Kottebohm have
superseded many of Lenz's conclusions. He also
published Die grossen PianofoHcvirtuosen un~
serer Zeit (Berlin, 1872), a collection of articles
on Liszt, Chopin, Tausig, Henselt, and many
other great artists, from personal knowledge,
well translated in the Monthly Musical Record
for 1878. \Aus devi Tagebuchc cines Livldnders
appeared in Vienna, without date, and Lenz died
at St. Petersburg, Jan. 31, 1883.] F. G.
LEO, Leonardo, more correctly Lionardo
Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, was born of humble
parents at S. Vito degli Sclavi, now called S.
'V'ito dei Nornianni, not far from Brindisi, on
August 5, 1694. Hewasthe youngest of the three
sons of Leonardo de Leo and Saveria Martino,
and was named Leonardo after his father, who
died before his birth, Oronzo after an ancestor
whose name has been perpetuated in the family
Tip to the jiresent day, and Salvatore because
ie came into the world poor like our Saviour.
According to the family traditions recorded by
Cavaliere Giacomo Leo, a descendant of his
brother Giuseppe, he was educated at S. Vito
by the Dominicans, who discovered his musical
talent and persuaded his mother and his uncles
Don Stanislao de Leo, Cantor of the church of
S. Vito, and Doctor Teodomiro de Leo to send
him to pursue his musical studies at Naples.
He was admitted to the Conservatorio della
Pieta dei Turchini in 1703, being then nine years
old, and remained there until he came of age in
1715. He must not be confused with a relative
of his, Leonardo Leo (not de Leo), son of Corrado
Leo, who was in easy circumstances, and was
living at Naples 'in domibus Conservatori, '
i.e.
in a house belonging to the Conservatorio della
Pietk dei Turchini at this time. This Leonardo
married in 1713 ; his namesake would not have
been allowed to do so while still a pupil of the
Conservatorio, and indeed he remained single
all his life.
At Naples Leonardo studied first under
Provenzale, and later under Nicola Fago il
Tarentino. It has been stated that he was
also a pup>il of Pitoni at Rome, and of Alessandro
Scarlatti at Naples ; but although his ^\'ovk
was certainly much influenced by both these
masters, he cannot have received direct tuition
from either of them. He cciild not have gone
to Eome for lessons while a poor student at a
Neapolitan Conservatorio, and A. Scarlatti on
his return to Naples towards the close of the
year 1708 was teaching, not at the Pietk dei
Turchini, but at the Poveri di Gesu Cristo.
Leo made his first appjearance as a composer
with a sacred drama on the subject Oi
Santa Chiara, entitled ' L' Infedelta abbattuta,'
performed by the students of the Conservatorio
during the carnival of 1712, and repeated on
Feb. 14 of that year at the royal palace, by
command of the Viceroy. Florirao names as
his first composition another sacred drama,
'II trionfo della castita di S. Alessio,' produced,
according to him, on Jan. 4, 1713, at
the Conservatorio, but no trace of either score
or libretto is to be found, and it is not mentioned
in the newspapers of the time. His first secular
opera was ' Pisistrato ' (Teatro di S. Bartolomeo,
May 13, 1714), which was much admired. In
the following year tire young composer was
made second master at the Pieta dei Turchini,
and (according to Florimo) organist of the
cathedral ; in 1716 he appears to have been
appointed supernumerary organist of the royal
chapel, and on June 23, 1717, organist, with a
stipend of 12.75 lire a month. This piromotion
was probably connected with the departure for
Eome of A. Scarlatti, which took place in the
autumn, after which he received no stipend, but
continued to hold the title of Primo Maestro
della Real Cappeila. Leo also became maestro
di cappeila at the church of S. ilaria della
Solitaria, which belonged to a convent of Spanish
nuns. In 1718 he produced 'Sofonisba,' hitherto
supposed to have been his first opera, and
in any case the first whicli definitely established
his reputation as a composer for the stage.
The scores of most of his operas of this time have
disappeared, and only the more important ones
need be mentioned here. In 1722 he composed
recitatives and comic scenes for Gasparini's
'Bajazette, ' first produced under the name of
' Tamerlano 'atVeniceinl710. The comic scenes
were written by Bernardo Sabdumene, who afterwards
became famous as a writer of comic libretti
in Neapolitan dialect. This seems to have been
the beginning of Leo's brilliant career as a com-
poser of comic opera. ' La mpeca scoperta '
(' L' imbroglio scoperto ') was produced in 1723
at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, a theatre already
celebrated for the comedies of A. Scarlatti and
Leonardo Vinci, and was the first of a long
series of successes in this line.
In 1725 Alessandro Scarlatti died, and a
number of promotions took place on the statf
of the royal chapel, Leo now becoming Ih'st
organist. It was probably at this date that he
became master at the Conservatorio di S.
Onofrio. His fame now extended outside Naples.
' Timocrate ' had been given in Venice in 1723,
and in 1726 his 'Trionfo di Camilla' was produced
at Rome. The charming pastorale ' In
van la gclosia, ' which occurs in this opera, enables