Nicola Porpora

  • Born: Naples, Italy, 17 August 1686
  • Died: Naples, Italy, 3 March 1768

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 (Teatro San Bartolomeo, 1711) and Basilio

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

1720: serenata Angelica – text by Metastasio, sung by Farinelli

Sets libretti by his pupil Metastasio, starting with Didone abbandonata, for Marianna Benti-Bulgarelli, in Reggio Emilia

1726–33: in Venice

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.

Positions in Venice (1737); Naples (1739 – maestro di cappella of conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto); Venice (1742)

1747: goes to Dresden as singing-teacher to Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis; dedicates his opera Filandro (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

Kaminski: “Un des plus réputés professeurs du chant de l’histoire, il cultiva dans ses opéras un style virtuose et brillant qui laissa une forte empreinte sur le goût contemporain, avant de passer de mode »

Operas

  1. Agrippina (1708)
  2. Flavio Ancio Olibrio (1711; revised 1722)
  3. Basilio, re di Oriente (1713)
  4. Arianna e Teseo (1714; revised 1727)
  5. Beatrice regina d’Egitto, ovvero Le gare di amore (1718)
  6. Temistocle (1718)
  7. Faramondo (1719)
  8. Angelica (1720)
  9. Eumene (1721)
  10. Gli orti esperidi (1721)
  11. Adelaide (1723)
  12. Amare per regnare (1723)
  13. Imeneo (1723)
  14. Semiramide regina dell’Assiria (1724)
  15. Damiro e Pitia (1724)
  16. Siface (1725)
  17. Didone abbandonata (1725)
  18. La verità nell’inganno (1726)
  19. Meride e Selinunte (1726)
  20. Siroe, re di Persia (1727)
  21. Ezio (1728)
  22. Semiramide riconosciuta (1729; revised 1739)
  23. Ermenegilda (1729)
  24. Mitridate (1730; revised 1736)
  25. Tamerlano (1730)
  26. Poro (1731)
  27. Annibale (1731)
  28. Germanico in Germania (1732) ****
  29. Issipile (1733)
  30. Arianna in Nasso (1733)
  31. Enia nel Lazio (1734)
  32. Polifemo (1735)
  33. Ifigenia in Aulide (1735)
  34. La festa d’Imeneo (1736)
  35. Lucio Papirio (1737)
  36. Rosbale (1737)
  37. Carlo il Calvo (1738)
  38. Il barone di Zampano (1739)
  39. L’amico fedele (1739)
  40. Intermezzo for the marriage of the Infante D Filippo (1739)
  41. Il trionfo di Camilla (1740; revised 1760)
  42. Tiridate (1740)
  43. Il trionfo del valore (1741)
  44. Giascone (1742)
  45. Statira (1742)
  46. Partenope (1742)
  47. La Rosmene (1742)
  48. Temistocle (1743)
  49. Le nozze d’Ercole e d’Ebe (1744)
  50. Filandro-Philander (1747)