A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Feo, Francesco

by Edward H. Pember

FEO, Francesco, one of the masters of the Neapolitan school, was born at Naples in 1699. The traditions of Greco and Scarlatti were still fresh there, and it was at the suggestion of the last named that Domenico Gizzi had opened the private school at which Feo learnt the art of singing and the principles of composition. His bent was essentially dramatic, as indeed was that of nearly all the Neapolitans of his epoch, with the exception of Durante, whose colder and gloomier temperament predisposed him towards the ecclesiastical severities of the Roman style. Feo, like Durante and Leo, passed some time at the Vatican as the pupil of Pitoni, but the influence of his master was not sufficient to divert him from Opera. His 'Ipermestra,' 'Ariana,' and 'Andromache' were all published at Rome itself, and apparently during his residence there. In 1740 he succeeded his old master Gizzi at Naples, and did much to establish the school as a nursery of great singers. Though addicted to the stage, Feo did not altogether neglect Church Music, and his work is distinguished by elevation of style and profound scientific knowledge. But a certain sensuousness, even in his sacred pieces, is suggested by the fact that Gluck borrowed the subject of a Kyrie by him for a chorus in one of his operas.

[ E. H. P. ]