LEO

leo, italian musical composer, was born on the 5th of august 1694 at s. vito dei normanni, near brindisi. he became a student at the conservatorio della pieta dei turchini at naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of provenzale and later of nicola fago. it has been supposed that he was a pupil of pitoni and alessandro scarlatti, but he could not possibly have studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly influenced by their compositions. his earliest known work was a sacred drama, _l'infedelta abbattuta_, performed by his fellow-students in 1712. in 1714 he produced, at the court theatre, an opera, _pisistrato_, which was much admired. he held various posts at the royal chapel, and continued to write for the stage, besides teaching at the conservatorio. after adding comic scenes to gasparini's _bajazette_ in 1722 for performance at naples, he composed a comic opera, _la mpeca scoperta_, in neapolitan dialect, in 1723. his most famous comic opera was _amor vuol sofferenze_ (1739), better known as _la finta frascatana_, highly praised by des brosses. he was equally distinguished as a composer of serious opera, _demofoonte_ (1735), _farnace_ (1737) and _l'olimpiade_ (1737) being his most famous works in this branch, and is still better known as a composer of sacred music. he died of apoplexy on the 31st of october 1744 while engaged in the composition of new airs for a revival of _la finta frascatana_. leo was the first of the neapolitan school to obtain a complete mastery over modern harmonic counterpoint. his sacred music is masterly and dignified, logical rather than passionate, and free from the sentimentality which disfigures the work of f. durante and g. b. pergolesi. his serious operas suffer from a coldness and severity of style, but in his comic operas he shows a keen sense of humour. his _ensemble_ movements are spirited, but never worked up to a strong climax. a fine and characteristic example of his sacred music is the _dixit dominus_ in c, edited by c. v. stanford and published by novello. a number of songs from operas are accessible in modern editions. (e. j. d.) leo (the lion), in astronomy, the fifth sign of the zodiac (q.v.), denoted by the symbol [omega]. it is also a constellation, mentioned by eudoxus (4th century b.c.) and aratus (3rd century b.c.). according to greek mythology this constellation is the nemean lion, which, after being killed by hercules, was raised to the heavens by jupiter in honour of hercules. a part of ptolemy's leo is now known as coma berenices (q.v.). [alpha] leonis, also known as cor leonis or the lion's heart, regulus, basilicus, &c., is a very bright star of magnitude 1.23, and parallax 0.02 , and proper motion 0.27 per annum. [gamma] leonis is a very fine orange-yellow binary star, of magnitudes 2 and 4, and period 400 years. [iota] leonis is a binary, composed of a 4th magnitude pale yellow star, and a 7th magnitude blue star. the leonids are a meteoric swarm, appearing in november and radiating from this constellation (see meteor).