# Nicola Porpora



## Meyerbeer Smith

Nicola Porpora was a master of writing for the human voice. In his day, he was one of Italy's foremost singing teachers; his pupils at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio, Naples, included the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli (who studied a single page of exercises for six years).










His operas, premiered in both Italy and Vienna, made him famous throughout Europe. When looking for a rival to Handel in the 1730s, the British aristocracy chose Porpora; the success of the Operas for the Nobility was short-lived, and the Italian left London after Handel's Atalanta (1736). As an old man in Vienna, Porpora taught singing and composition to his valet, one Joseph Haydn. Sadly, audiences lost their taste for Porpora's virtuosic style (his last work, _Il trionfo di Camilla_, failed in 1760), and he died in poverty.

Writing towards the end of the 18th century, Burney judged Porpora "more a man of judgment and experience, than genius. His ... operas and cantatas, which I have seen, are written with good taste; the melodies of the airs are graceful and natural; and the recitatives, particularly of his cantatas, are still regarded in Italy as models of perfection, for narrative Music. In his airs he rather polished and refined the passages of other composers than invented new; and in his accompaniment there is nothing very picturesque or ingenious. He was long esteemed the best singing-master in Europe, and was fortunate in the voices he had to form, particularly in that of Farinelli."

Posterity marked Porpora down as a vocal sensualist. "As befitted a famous singing-teacher," Warrack & West (_The Oxford Dictionary of Opera_, 1997) write, "he displayed a consummate ability to write elegant melodic lines displaying the singer's abilities to best effect. But the emphasis on vocal virtuosity, excessive even by the standards of the day, hindered dramatic articulation. Though more talented than many of his contemporaries, Porpora was no match for Handel, beside whom his style is stilted and lacking in dramatic intensity. Even during his lifetime criticisms were leveled that his music was too florid and ornamented; and his works, though not his reputation, soon passed from the repertoire."

With the rise of the countertenor, Porpora's works are being rediscovered. Max Emanuel Cenčić, Franco Fagioli, and Philippe Jaroussky have recorded albums of Porpora arias. (Cenčić calls his vocal writing an "almost sadistic" challenge.) They're sublimely beautiful.


















Few of his operas have been recorded: _Il Gedeone _(1999); _Orlando _(2006); _Arianna in Nasso _(2016); and most recently _Germanico in Germania _(2017), with Cenčić. _Semiramide riconosciuta_ has been videoed, but no commercial recording exists. _Polifemo_ will be performed in Salzburg in June, with Cencic as both star and director.

*Brief chronology*
Born Naples, 17 August 1686

10 years old: enters Conservatorio des Poveri di Gesù Cristo; there until 20, studying composition and singing

Studied Naples with Grecos, Giordano, and Campaniles
c. 1707 - enters service of Prince Philipp, Landgraf of Hessen-Darmstadt, as maestro di 
cappella; 
First operatic success: _Agrippina_ (Neapolitan court, 1708), followed by _Flavio Anicio Olibrio _(Naples, 1711, revised 1722) and _Basilio, re di Oriente _(Naples, 1713)

1714: _Arianna e Teseo _a success at Viennese court; alternates operas between Vienna and Naples

1715-21: maestro di cappella at the Cons di S. Onofrio, Naples; taught singers including Caffarelli, Farinelli, Porporino, Salimbeni, Hasse

Berenice regina d'Egitto, ovvero Le gare di amore (Rome, 1718)
Temistocle (Vienna, 1718)
Faramondo (Naples, 1719)

1720: serenata _Angelica _ (Naples)- text by Metastasio, sung by Farinelli - his first collaboration with both

Eumene (Rome, 1721)
Gli orti esperidi (Naples, 1721)
Adelaide (Rome, 1723)
Amare per regnare (Naples, 1723)
Imeneo (Naples, 1723)
Semiramide regina dell'Assiria (Naples, 1724)
Damiro e Pitia (Munich, 1724)
Siface (Milan, 1725)

Sets libretti by his pupil Metastasio, starting with _Didone abbandonata_, for Marianna Benti-Bulgarelli, in Reggio Emilia
1726-33: in Venice


La verità nell'inganno (Milan, 1726)
Meride e Selinunte (Venice, 1726)
Siroe, re di Persia (Rome, 1727)
Ezio (Venice, 1728)
Semiramide riconosciuta (Venice, 1729; revised 1739)
Ermenegilda (Naples, 1729)
Mitridate (Rome, 1730; revised 1736)
Tamerlano (Turin, 1730)
Poro (Turin, 1731)
Annibale (Venice, 1731)
Germanico in Germania (Rome, 1732)
Issipile (Rome, 1733)

1733: travels to London, as principal composer of the Opera of the Nobility; becomes main rival to Handel. Leaves London after success of Handel's _Atalanta_.

Arianna in Nasso (1733)
Enia nel Lazio (1734)
Polifemo (1735)
Ifigenia in Aulide (1735)
La festa d'Imeneo (1736)

Positions in Venice (1737)

Lucio Papirio (1737)
Rosbale (1737)
Carlo il Calvo (Rome, 1738)

Naples (1739 - maestro di cappella of conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto)
[*]Il barone di Zampano (1739)
[*]L'amico fedele (1739)
[*]Il trionfo di Camilla (1740; revised 1760)
[*]Tiridate (1740)
[*]Il trionfo del valore (1741)
[*]Giascone (1742)

Venice (1742)
[*]Statira (Venice, 1742)
[*]Partenope (Naples, 1742)
[*]La Rosmene (Vienna, 1742)
[*]Temistocle (London, 1743)
[*]Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe (Venice, 1744)

1747: goes to Dresden as singing-teacher to Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis; dedicates his opera _Filandro-Philander _(1747) to her

1748: appointed Kapellmeister; Hasse appointed above him as Oberkapellmeister

1752: moves to Vienna; Haydn his pupil, copyist, accompanied his lessons

1754: what Kaminski considers his instrumental masterpiece, 12 Violin sonatas dedicated to princess Maria Antonia

Returns to Italy - Naples (1758), Venice (1759), Naples (1760 - his last work, a second version of _Trionfo di Camilla_, performed without success)

Dies in poverty, March 3, 1768


----------



## Musicaterina

I like the cello concerto of Nicola Porpora very much. This is a compact disk with this concerto played by Jan Vogler.


----------



## Ingélou

Lovely to be able to sample such beautiful counter-tenor singing - thanks, OP.

Here's Nicola Porpora - Salve Regina in fa maggiore (Dantone) -






It's too elaborate to be my favourite Salve Regina, but it's nice.


----------

