Hardly had the young composer's body been buried--in the little cathedral at Pozzuoli--when a sudden and extreme admiration for his music broke out in Italy, and soon spread to other countries. Naples, in her tardy enthusiasm, justified the reproach of Dr. Burney, who wrote, "Had she known her own happiness, Naples might have boasted of possessing one of the greatest geniuses she or the world had ever produced. The first opera of Giovanni Battista Pergolese was performed at her second theatre! The young composer found not among his countrymen minds sensible of his extraordinary talents or that acknowledged the natural maxim of Horace, '_Bonus sis felixque tuis_.' His native land was the last to discover, or to confess, his superior powers." Two years after its author's death the "Olimpiade" was reproduced in splendid fashion at Rome and received with honor. The "Serva Padrona" was translated into other languages and heard in many European cities. It reached Paris about 1750, and although performed by inferior singers, it created so deep an impression,--subsequently increased by "Il Maestro di Musica,"--that some French authorities have not hesitated to say that this music almost revolutionized theatrical art and led to the establishment of comic opera as it has been since understood in France. His sacred music was also introduced in the Concerts Spirituels and greatly applauded as among the chief sensations of the time. Pergolese is judged to have had his first adequate hearing in England in 1724. The poet Gray had brought home from Italy fine reports of the new music, and in that year the "Olimpiade" was put upon the stage of the King's Theatre, then directed by the Duke of Middlesex. It had not a distinguished success, but one air, "_Tremende oscure atroci_," became an established favorite in concerts with the principal Italian tenors for ten years after. * * * * * For a good many years after Pergolese's death his music, both dramatic and sacred, was in the highest esteem throughout Italy, and received the tribute of much imitation. His "Stabat Mater," which may be regarded as the best of his ecclesiastical compositions--unless some should prefer the "Salve Regina"--even held its own, and not in Italy alone, by any means, until it was superseded by the larger and more popularly written work of Rossini.