Giovanni Battista Pergolesi brought the theatre into churches, and religious seriousness into theatres. He is also the first musician who was never dropped from the repertory, either in theatres or in churches. Before him, only contemporary music was played and sung. His Stabat Mater and La serva padrona never stopped being performed, admired and applauded. The characters were now men and women made of flesh and blood, not stock characters, types and stilted heroes, and had the same feelings and intentions as the men and women who frequented the theatre. Pergolesi’s modernity still surprises.
