He chose to concentrate on sacred music rather than the more fashionable opera composition favoured by other Neapolitans and his works became examples of 'good composition' used for teaching.

Durante was primo maestro at the two major Conservatorii in Naples S Onofrio and S Maria di Loreto and taught composers ranging from Sacchini to Piccini and Paisiello. Not a composer of a large quantity of work, his music exhibits great skill and invention and a dramatic flair well suited to the style of music he chose to write.

Very little is known about his actions between 1705 and 1728 when he was appointed primo maestro of the Conservatorio delle Poveri di Gesu Cristo. Some theories suggest that was in Rome during that time and perhaps studied with Pitoni and Pasquini and that the Missa S Ildefonsi per S Giacomo degli Spagnuoli of 1709 was written for the Spanish church in Rome. However there was, of course, a Spanish church in Naples as well.

He was definitely in Naples in 1710 as he was teaching at his uncle's old institution of the Conservatorio di S Onofrio a Capuana however he left there in January 1711. In 1714 he married for the first time.

There is no information regarding his whereabouts for the next nine years, however in 1728 he was appointed primo maestro at the Conservatorio delle Poveri di Gesu Cristo with the retirement of Gaetano Greco and this must be seen as the first evidence of the high opinion in which he was held. Among his students at the Conservatorio was Pergolesi.

Durante left the Conservatorio in 1739 for unknown reasons and nothing is known of his whereabouts intil 1742 when he was elected primo maestro of the Conservatorio della S Maria di Loreto which had been without a primo maestro since Porpora's departure for Venice in 1741. During his tenure at S Maria di Loreto such composers as Anfossi, Fenaroli, Guglielmi, Sacchini, Speranza and Traetta received their training under his guidance.

Following the death of Leo in 1744, Durante was appointed primo maestro of the Conservatorio di S Onofrio a Capuana with effect from the start of 1745. At S Onofrio he was responsible for the training of Nicolo Piccini, who came to be regarded by Durante more like a son than a pupil.

Also in 1744 he married Anna Furano of Naples, following the death of his first wife in 1741. She died after only a few years in 1747 when he quickly married the 22 year

old Angela Anna Carmina Giacobbe.

He died in Naples aged 71 and was buried in the church of S Lorenzo.