Porpora is more noteworthy for the singers he formed than for his forty-six operas, all of which have sunk into oblivion. He was the greatest of the many masters of singing who through their pupils made the Opera of the 18th century the field of display for the most remarkable singers the world has ever heard. Jommelli was one of the most gifted composers of his day. He spent fifteen years in Germany as capellmeister to the Duke of Wurtemburg, but the influence of this long residence in a country where musical ideals were of a more austere type than in Italy, though it added dignity and solidity to his art, was fatal to his popularity when he returned to his native land; his countrymen found his operas heavy in style and deficient in melody. Piccini was the composer of the most popular _Opera Buffa_ of the century, _Cecchina_, but is now remembered principally by the bitter feud which arose in Paris in 1787 between his admirers and those of Gluck. Paisiello’s most celebrated work was _Il Barbiere di Siviglia_ (The Barber of Seville), which held the stage for thirty years until the success of Rossini’s masterpiece on the same subject forced it into retirement. Cimarosa’s _Il Matrimonio Segreto_ (The Secret Marriage) was an equal favorite; one of its numbers, the trio for women’s voices, _Ti Faccio un Inchino_ (I make thee a reverence), sometimes appears on modern programs. =Influence of the Neapolitan School=.—Notwithstanding the formalism of the Neapolitan school, which led to a regrettable neglect of the dramatic signification of the Opera by an over-emphasis of its musical element, it was of no small importance in the development of music in general. By fixing the principles of form and melody at a time when both were vague and undetermined, Scarlatti laid the foundation of the great classical period, beginning with Haydn and Mozart and ending with Beethoven. This was his contribution to absolute music, which cannot exist without form, though its influence was disastrous to purity of form in the branch of the art which he particularly cultivated. REFERENCES. Dent.—Alessandro Scarlatti: His Life and Works. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. Which Italian city now became the centre of operatic development? Who was the founder of this new school? Tell about his style and training. What did he contribute to the development of the Opera? Describe the Aria. Describe the Overture. Describe a typical Italian Opera. Describe the Intermezzo. Describe the Opera Buffa. Who were the prominent composers of the Neapolitan school? What was the influence of this school? The period of Scarlatti’s work extends approximately from the English Revolution of 1688, which drove James II from the throne, to the end of the reign of George I. In American Colonial history this period is one of gathering strength in the various provinces on the Atlantic Coast. LESSON XX.