Neapolitan School

In music history, the Neapolitan School is a group, associated with opera, of 17th and 18th-century composers who studied or worked in Naples, Italy,[1] the best known of whom is Alessandro Scarlatti, with whom "modern opera begins".

[2] Francesco Provenzale is generally considered the school's founder.

[3] Others significant composers of this school are Giambattista Pergolesi, Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello.

That Naples was a significant musical center in the 18th century is beyond doubt.

Whether the composers working in Naples at that time developed or partook of a distinct and characteristic musical style is less clear" since so little is known about the repertory.