Gemma Bertagnolli, soprano : Maria
Lucia Cirillo, alto : Maddalena
Carlo Allemano, ténor : Giuseppe

Giuseppe Sammartini
Ouverture en ré Majeur

Gian Francesco de Majo” Ciccio”
Gesù sotto il peso della croce
oratorio pour solistes et orchestre (1764)
Premiere

…"Ciccio" de Majo, and it was this magnificent music…
W.A. Mozart, letter to his sister, Naples 1770 …

...our ardent and languorous Majo…
Metastasio, letter to Farinelli, August 1764 …

...one of the greatest composers…
W. Heinse-Hildegard von Hohenthal, 1795-1796

A part of the pit went out at the end of the performance to carry the musician home in triumph, whilst the remainder of the audience stayed in the hall, still shouting ‘Viva Majo!!'
Carlo Goldoni, Mémoires

Can such flattering judgements suffice for ensuring that a great composer live on in memories? The answer is: obviously not. The example of Francesco ‘Ciccio’ de Majo (1732-1770) is symptomatic of this persistent tendency to give a confused, unjust vision of the role played by 18th-century composers in the history of music. And yet, in the present case, all the conditions were met for it to be otherwise. A highly successful composer in his lifetime, he belonged to the profoundly reformist movement that, with Jommelli and Traetta, demanded an alternative to opera seria, incorporating the reforms of Gluck. Despite his premature death (at 37, from consumption), Majo apparently stimulated this Romantic universe that allows Pergolesi, for example, to survive in our memories. The career of our Neapolitan unfolded between Naples and the major European centres such as Vienna, Turin, Mannheim, Venice, Madrid and Rome, with incontestable success and continual commissions for new scores that resulted in 20 operas, some six oratorios and various sacred works.

Fabio Biondi