Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater to be performed at Holy Rosary Church

The Orchestra da Camera of the Conservatorio "G.B. Pergolesi" di Fermo, Italy, will be performing Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater Easter Sunday April 20, 2025, at Holy Rosary Church in Washington DC. The concert will be held following the Church's Italian mass which is held at 10:30 am. This is a free event sponsored by the Italian American Museum of Washington DC and Holy Rosary Church.

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Italian, 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.

The Stabat Mater achieved great popularity after the composer's death. Jean-Jacques Rousseau showed appreciation for the work, praising the opening movement as "the most perfect and touching duet to come from the pen of any composer". Many composers adapted the work, including Giovanni Paisiello, who extended the orchestral accompaniment, and Joseph Eybler, who added a choir to replace some of the duets.