Porpora, Nicola (EN)

Porpora Antonio, *17 August 1686 Naples, †3 March 1768 Naples, Italian composer and singing teacher. From 1696, he studied for about 10 years at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples (counterpoint and composition, presumably under the guidance of G. Greco). In 1708, he received a commission for his first opera (L’Agrippina), and in 1711 he staged another, Flavio Anicio Olibrio. At that time, he became Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the general of the Austrian army in Naples, and then maestro di cappella to the Portuguese ambassador in Rome. In 1714, he received a commission from Vienna for the opera Arianna e Teseo (performed in 1714 on the occasion of the birthday of Emperor Charles VI). From 1715 to 1722, Porpora was employed as maestro at the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio in Naples, where he taught singing, playing instruments and composition. He also gave private lessons, including to Farinelli, whose early career he helped to facilitate. He returned to the Viennese stage in 1718 with the opera Temistocle and Bérénice regina d’Egitto, composed with D. Scarlatti and previously staged in Rome. However, Porpora gained recognition only after A. Scarlatti left Naples. In 1719, the opera Faramondo was staged in Naples on the occasion of Empress Elisabeth’s name day, and in 1720, for her birthday celebrations, he composed the serenade Angelica (to a libretto by P. Metastasio, who was just beginning his career in opera) was staged, in which Farinelli, Porpora’s pupil, made his debut. In 1721, Porpora’s fame as a composer grew after the premiere of the opera Eumene at the Teatro Alibert in Rome; the composer remained in the city for the next two years. In 1724, he left for Germany and Austria, and his opera Damiro e Pitia was staged in Munich. After returning to Italy, he continued to compose operas, which were successfully performed in Milan and Venice (Siface), among other places. Until 1733, and again in 1737–38, he taught at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice. In the following years, Porpora’s subsequent operas achieved immense success: Tamerlano, Poro, Annibale, Germanico in Germania and Issipile, as well as Cantata: da recitarsi nel Palazzo Apostolico la notte del SS Natale, the oratorio Sanctus Petrus Urseolus and Mass in A major.

In 1733, Porpora left for London, where he took over as musical director of the Opera of the Nobility, competing with Händel, who was associated with the Royal Academy of Music. That rivalry with lasted about two years. In London, Porpora made his debut with the highly successful opera Arianna in Naxo, later staging four more operas: Enea nel Lazio, Polifemo, Ifigenia in Aulide and Mitridate. In 1736, shortly before the collapse of both opera houses, he left London and went to Venice, where in 1737 he staged two operas (Lucio Papirio and Rosbale) and composed Cario il Calvo for the Teatro Alibert in Rome. In October 1738, he returned to Naples, where he continued to compose operas and assumed the position of conductor at the Conservatorio di S. Maria di Loreto. At the beginning of 1743, he travelled to London for the premiere of Temistocle. 

After his return, he began giving singing lessons in Ospedaletto in Venice, where he had many talented female pupils. From 1747 to 1751 he lived in Dresden, where he became the singing teacher of the Saxon princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis. There he met his rival, J.A. Hasse, whose wife, the singer Faustina Bordoni, competed with Porpora’s protégée Regina Mingotti. Both performed in 1747 in Filandro, Porpora’s only opera staged in Dresden at that time. The conflict between the singers spread to both composers, but this did not prevent Porpora from taking up the position of Kapellmeister in the royal-electoral orchestra in 1748, replacing Hasse, who was appointed Oberkapellmeister in 1750. In 1752–53, Porpora lived in Vienna, where he renewed his acquaintance with Metastasio. He gave singing lessons, including to Metastasio’s protégée, the future composer Marianne von Martinez. J. Haydn was his pupil and accompanist at the time. 

In 1759, Porpora fell into financial difficulties, having lost his Dresden pension due to the Seven Years War. Thanks to the intervention of Metastasio and Farinelli, he was appointed one of the maestri di cappella at the Conservatorio di S. Maria di Loreto in Naples; in 1760, he also became maestro at the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio. In 1761, he resigned from both positions and spent the last years of his life in Naples, living in poverty. 

Among his contemporaries, Porpora was considered one of the most famous opera composers. He was highly regarded in Italy, England, and Austria. Unlike the works of G.B. Pergolesi, however, his operas, like the performances of castrato singers, did not gain approval in France.

Porpora was a representative of the second generation of the Neapolitan school, and his style corresponded to the aesthetics of the turn of the Baroque and early Classicism. At that time, Italian music began to be dominated by homophonic texture in the form of exuberant melodies with heightened expression and simple harmonic accompaniment (usually a string ensemble and basso continuo); Porpora also focused primarily on the cantilena qualities of music and elaborate ornamentation. As an outstanding singing teacher, he was well aware of the capabilities of the human voice, in physiological, technical, expressive terms. Over time, however, singing became more an end in itself than a means of expression, and his style, tailored to the scale of the greatest masters of bel canto (primarily castrati), often served solely to display their vocal abilities. The expectations of the audience at the time were shaped accordingly, as they were more attracted to the virtuosity of the singers than to the artistic value of the work. As a result of this tendency, opera came to be dominated by the da capo aria (AA1BAA1, e.g. in Semiramide, Porpora conceived such a large-scale form for all six principal characters) and singers were given excessive freedom to improvise additional ornaments and other brilliant interludes. However, the elaborate vocal techniques in Porpora’s music often lose their charm due to a lack of inventiveness and errors in the logic of the melody’s development. The lack of dramatic sense in the recitatives may also be found wanting, as well as an arising from the near total elimination or marginalization of ensemble scenes. In contrast, choruses relatively often provide a background to the stage action and at the same time serve as an “interlude” between the solo sections.

Porpora’s rivalry with Händel had a positive impact on the artistic value of his stage works. Porpora’s operas composed in England, starting with Arianna in Naxo exhibit greater attention to compositional detail. The composer differentiated their musical characteristics more clearly, attaching greater importance to recitativo accompagnato and shortened arias, thus enhancing the dramatic qualities of the work (e.g. Arianna’s lament Misera, a che farà from Act 2). He also showed more inventiveness in the instrumental layer, expanding the ensemble with wind instruments (oboes, trumpets, and horns) and even introducing concertante elements into the arias (e.g. the oboe solo in Aci’s aria Lontano dal solo e caro from Act 2 of Polifemo). On the other hand, it was in his London operas that Porpora sought to make the strongest impression through vocal bravura and the intensive use of coloratura. In addition to his operas, Porpora’s best works also include 12 cantatas, Op. 1, with beautifully arranged recitatives and arias.

Porpora enjoyed fame and recognition as an outstanding singing teacher. He trained his most talented pupils outside the constraints of the conservatories, through private lessons (taking control of their upbringing and the entire process of their education), which ensured their faster and more thorough development. His students included the most famous singers of the era: Farinelli, Caffarelli, Porporino (A. Uberti) and R. Mingotti. He also gave several lessons to J.A. Hasse before he decided to study with A. Scarlatti, and to Metastasio. Porpora later maintained professional contacts with his most outstanding pupils, seeking favourable contracts and leading roles for them. Over time, the fame of the singers who worked with him came to surpass his own reputation within the musical sphere.

The sheet music of Porpora’s works has been preserved in an incomplete state; the music of his many operas has been lost, surviving only partially in the form of individual acts or arias. As the Classical style emerged and Enlightenment ideals became widespread, Porpora’s oeuvre, strongly associated with the cult of the castrato and Metastasian poetry, fell into obscurity, sharing the fate of Hasse’s operas and those of many other contemporary opera composers.

Literature:

D. Tumiati Porpora. Dramme di un’anima, Milan 1927; F. Walker A Chronology of the Life and Works of N. Porpora, «Italian Studies» VI, Cambridge 1951; E. Foreman The Porpora Tradition, 1968; F. Degrada Le musiche strumentali di N. Porpora, “Chigiana” XXV, 1968; E. Lavern Sutton The solo vocal works of Nicola Porpora: an annotated thematic catalogue, doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota 1974, Ann Arbor 1980; R. Strohm Italienische Opernarien des frühen Settecento (1720–1730), “Analecta Musicologica” XVI, 1976; R. Keable Porpora and the opera of nobility: an introduction to a critical edition of Polifemo Act III, doctoral dissertation at the University of London 1980; W. M. Hienz The choral psams of Nicola Porpora, Ann Arbor 1981; M.F. Robinson How to Demonstrate Virtue. The Case of Porpora’s Two Settings of “Mitridate,” «Studies in Music from the University of Western Ontario» VII, 1982; Geschichte der italienischen Oper, vol. IV, eds. L. Banconi and G. Pestelli, Laaber 1990; X. Cervantes, T. McGeary Handel, Porpora and the ‘Windy Bumm,’ “Early Music” XXIX, book 4 (2001), pp. 607–616; N. Maccavino, C. Toscani, S. Voss et al. Nicola Porpora musicista europeo: le corti, i teatri, i cantanti, i librettisti, proceedings from the international conference in Reggio Calabria 2008, Reggio Calabria 2011; D.J. Dumigan Nicola Porpora’s operas for the ‘opera of the nobility’ : the poetry and the music, doctoral dissertation at the University of Huddersfield (WB), 2014; J. H. Roberts Vinci, Porpora and The Royal Academy of Music, “Il Saggiatore musicale” XXIII book 2 (2016), pp. 243–276; J. Talia Italian Bel Canto in the age of vocal science: the evolution of the art and the science of singing, Samford Valley (Australia) 2019, e-book Brisbane 2019; Operatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe: Contexts, Materials and Aesthetics, ed. B. Over, G. Zur Nieden, Bielefeld 2021, e-book 2021; I. Balmori Le belcanto: qu’en ont fait les enseignants? Une analyse située de pratiques didactiques, entre 1639 et 1950, Rennes 2021.