Nicola Antonio Porpora

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Nicola Porpora

Nicola Antonio Porpora (born August 17, 1686 in Naples , † March 3, 1768 there ) was an Italian composer and singing teacher.

His most famous students were the castrati Farinelli , Caffarelli and Porporino (aka Antonio Uberti ), as well as the prima nuns Regina Mingotti and Caterina Gabrielli .

Life

Beginnings in Italy

From September 8, 1696 to 1706, Porpora attended the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in Naples as a student of Gaetano Greco and Ottavio Campanile and then entered the service of Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt , the commander of the imperial troops in Naples , as Kapellmeister . As an opera composer he made his debut with Agrippina , which was performed on November 4, 1708 in the royal palace in Naples and repeated on November 9 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo .

In July 1715, Porpora began his activity as a singing teacher at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio (Naples), from whom such famous students as the castrati Antonio Uberti (who called himself Porporino in honor of his teacher ), Farinelli (Carlo Broschi) and Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano ) emerged. On August 28, 1720 he presented Farinelli for the first time in a private performance of the Festa teatrale Angelica e Medoro (text by Pietro Metastasio , who made his debut as a librettist) in the house of the Principe della Toretta. Farinelli made his public debut in the Carnival of 1721 at the Roman Teatro Alibert in the opera Eumene by Porpora. The sensational success of his master student also gave Porpora's career a strong boost. In 1722 he resigned from the Conservatorio Sant'Onofrio so that he could devote himself entirely to promoting Farinelli's singing career over the next three years. Not until 1725 did he return to an official position as head of the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice . His operatic output, which until then was rather sporadic, now resulted in a long series of works composed in rapid succession with many arias especially for castrato voices, which were performed on all the important stages in Italy. During these years Porpora competed with Leonardo Vinci for the rank of the most popular opera composer in Italy. Vinci had Pietro Metastasio on his side, who had quickly risen to become the most sought-after opera poet and who usually entrusted his coveted libretti to him, whom he particularly valued as a musician, for the first setting. Porpora, on the other hand, usually had the more famous singers available, many of whom were associated with him as former students. The rivalry between the two composers did not end until Vinci's sudden death (it was said that he was murdered with a cup of poisoned hot chocolate as a result of a love affair) in May 1730.

London and the "Opera of the Nobility"

In 1733 Porpora accepted an invitation to London to take over the artistic direction of the newly founded “Opera of the Nobility”, which was sponsored by the Prince of Wales and competed with the opera company George Frideric Handel , which was supported by King George II . With his first work for this company, Porpora made a clever move. After it became known that Handel's opera Arianna in Creta, planned for the coming season, was based on the arrangement of a libretto by Pietro Pariati ( Arianna e Teseo ), which Porpora had already set to music, Paolo Antonio Rolli immediately wrote a sequel. The new opera Arianna in Nasso opened the season at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater on December 29, 1733, four weeks before Handel was able to present his Ariadne on January 26, 1734 at the King's Theater .

For the next season, the "Opera of the Nobility" leased the Haymarket Theater; Handel and his staff had to move to Covent Garden . As an additional crowd puller, Farinelli was brought to London, who was still engaged in Italy during the Carnival of 1734. The new season opened on October 29, 1734 with Artaserse by Johann Adolf Hasse (it is often claimed that Hasse himself was there to rehearse, but it has not been proven). The first performance of this opera had already taken place in Venice Carnival in 1730, also with Farinelli in the role of Arbace. The version, which was expanded into a pasticcio with a series of arias penned by Porpora, Attilio Ariosti and Farinelli's brother Riccardo Broschi , was a spectacular success and attracted such popularity to the aristocratic opera that Handel's staff had to play several times in front of an almost empty house. At least Handel managed to secure the participation of Marie Sallé's famous ballet troupe , who performed in London, for the next season . With Ariodante (January 8, 1735) and Alcina (April 16, 1735) he created two of his masterpieces, which, because of their lavish choir and ballet performances, could measure up to the box office hits of the competition in terms of scenic attractiveness. Porpora, on the other hand , continued to rely entirely on the virtuosity of its singing stars with Polifemo , punctually for the beginning of the year on January 1st, 1735.

Return to Italy

The mutual arms race of the London opera houses soon led to the exhaustion of financial resources, despite good income (which had to be invested largely in the singers' fees). When the two rival companies had driven each other to ruin after four seasons, Porpora left London and tried to recommend himself with his oratorio Gedeone at the imperial court in Vienna. However, the work does not seem to have met with any particular approval and the hoped-for employment did not materialize. Porpora returned to Naples, where he immediately reconnected with the public musical life and was able to continue the series of his operas. The premiere of the revised version of Semiramide riconosciuta on January 20, 1739 in the Teatro San Carlo in particular was a triumph, also thanks to the participation of Caffarelli. In the same year Porpora became first teacher at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto . In 1742 he went to Venice to perform his opera Statira , where he was choirmaster at the Ospedale della Pietà from 1742 to 1743 and at the Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto from 1744 to 1747 .

Interlude in Dresden

After Porpora had unsuccessfully applied for his successor as Royal Kapellmeister in Naples after the death of Leonardo Leo in 1744, he left Italy the following year and traveled in the entourage of the Venetian ambassador Pietro Correr via Vienna to Dresden. A serious rivalry soon developed between him and Johann Adolf Hasse , who had been the Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Kapellmeister since 1731 . With the appointment as singing teacher of Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria (decree of February 1, 1748) and the appointment as Kapellmeister (April 13, 1748), Porpora was practically equal to Hasse. In addition to the disputes over competence, Porpora's pupil Regina Mingotti became a serious competitor in the public's favor for the reigning prima donna Faustina Bordoni (Hasse's wife). Hasse's increasingly unsteady position was re-established when he received the official title of senior music director on January 7, 1749, which Porpora apparently perceived as a personal resignation.

Last years

At the beginning of 1752 Porpora left Dresden, which had become increasingly unpleasant for him, and settled as a singing teacher in Vienna, where he lived in the Michaelerhaus next to the Michaelerkirche, where Metastasio also had an apartment. Around the mid-1750s he employed the young Joseph Haydn as his valet. In return for tuition, free board and lodging, Haydn had to accompany Porpora's singing students on the piano. Since he did not receive any opera commissions in Vienna, Porpora tried to bring himself to mind as a composer by publishing 12 sonatas for violin and bass in print (1754). Measured against the level of instrumental composition at the time, the works, which were already old-fashioned, met with little response.

In 1760 Porpora returned to Naples, where he took up the position of Maestro di cappella at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto on April 10 of that year. At the same time he was commissioned to recreate the popular libretto Il trionfo di Camilla by Silvio Stampiglia for the Teatro San Carlo, a text that he had already composed for the same stage twenty years earlier. The premiere of this new edition on May 30, 1760 was an unanimous failure, which caused him to finally retire as an opera composer. On May 1, 1761, he resigned from his position at the Conservatory for unknown reasons. There is hardly any reliable information about the rest of his life; Metastasio reported in a letter to Farinelli that Porpora had died poor and lonely in Naples.

meaning

Nicola Porpora was considered to be the best singing teacher in Italy (and thus Europe) and an incomparable expert on the human voice. In a way that was new at the time, his teaching methods aimed at developing the individual abilities of each student up to perfect mastery of the vocal instrument. The formation of a flawlessly pure tone and the ability to effortlessly master every theoretically possible technical difficulty were considered a prerequisite for musical interpretation. Later music historians also attributed the heyday of Italian singing culture in the 18th century primarily to Porpora's work.

As a composer, Porpora is one of the main representatives of the opera seria , the predominant form of opera at the time in all of Europe (with the exception of France, which still preserved its own tradition founded by Jean-Baptiste Lully ). Characteristic of this type of opera is the separation of recitatives, in which the plot progresses, and closed musical numbers, almost exclusively arias, in which the characters in the drama express their feelings using virtuoso singing. The musical appearance is thus dominated by solo singing. The feelings (“affects”) sung about were standardized in a similar way to their musical representation. Porpora's specialty was the Aria di bravura , which he led to the height of its development. In pieces of this kind, the vocal part becomes a virtuoso course for the voice, which is emphasized by an often strikingly rich orchestral line-up with strong winds (Porpora prefers trumpets and hunting horns). In the Aria cantabile , reserved for tender feelings , on the other hand, he cultivated a graceful melody with folk echoes, as is typical of the early Italian Rococo . The fact that Porpora limited the musical implementation of the actual plot to the recitatives, which he set to music very carefully with careful attention to the word accents, and often concentrated on purely musical effects in the arias, was later often reproached, but largely corresponds to the aesthetics of Opera seria.

As a literary figure, Nicola Porpora went into the novel Consuelo (1842–1843) by George Sand .

Works (selection)

Vocal music

Operas

(in brackets librettist, place and year of the premiere)

  • L'Agrippina, "dramma per musica" in a prologue and three acts (Nicola Giuvo; Naples 1708)
  • Flavio Anicio Olibrio, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno , Pietro Pariati ; Naples 1711)
  • Basilio, re d'Oriente, "dramma per musica" (B. de Domenici after Giambattista Neri; Naples 1713, lost)
  • Arianna e Teseo (I), "dramma per musica" ( Pietro Pariati ; Vienna 1714)
  • Berenice regina d'Egitto o vero Le gare d'amore e di politica ( Pasticcio ), "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Antonio Salvi ; 1718, lost)
  • Temistocle (I), "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno ; Vienna 1718)
  • Faramondo, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno ; Naples 1719)
  • Eumene, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno ; Rome 1721)
  • Adelaide, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Antonio Salvi ; Rome 1723)
  • Amare per regnare, "dramma per musica" in three acts (after Francesco Silvani ; Naples 1723)
  • Semiramide, regina dell'Assiria, "dramma per musica" in three acts (Ippolito Zanelli; Naples 1724)
  • Damiro e Pitia, o vero Le gare dell'amicizia e dell'amore, "dramma per musica" ( Domenico Lalli ; Munich 1724)
  • Didone abbandonata , "tragedia per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Reggio nell'Emilia 1725)
  • Siface , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Milan 1725; new version Rome 1730)
  • La verità nell'inganno, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Francesco Silvani , Milan 1726)
  • Meride e Selinunte, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno ; Venice 1726)
  • Siroe, re di Persia , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Rome 1727)
  • Arianna e Teseo (II), "dramma per musica" ( Domenico Lalli after Pietro Pariati ; Venice 1727)
  • Ezio , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Venice 1728)
  • Semiramide riconosciuta , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Venice 1729, new version Naples 1739)
  • Tamerlano , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Agostino Piovene ; Turin 1730)
  • Mitridate (I), "dramma per musica" in three acts (Filippo Vanstryp; Rome 1730)
  • Poro (Alessandro nell'Indie) , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio , Turin 1731)
  • Venceslao (Pasticcio), "dramma" in three acts ( Apostolo Zeno ; London 1731)
  • Annibale, "dramma per musica" in three acts (Filippo Vanstryp; Venice 1731)
  • Didone abbandonata (pasticcio), "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Rome 1732)
  • Germanico in Germania, "dramma per musica" in three acts (Nicola Coluzzi; Rome 1732)
  • Issipile , "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Pietro Metastasio ; Rome 1733)
  • Arianna in Nasso, "melodramma" in three acts ( Paolo Antonio Rolli ; London 1733)
  • Enea nel Lazio, "melodramma" in three acts ( Paolo Antonio Rolli ; London 1734)
  • Polifemo, "melodramma" in three acts ( Paolo Antonio Rolli ; London 1735)
  • Ifigenia in Aulide, "melodramma" in three acts ( Paolo Antonio Rolli , Apostolo Zeno ; London 1735)
  • Mitridate (II), "opera" in three acts (C. Gibber; London 1736)
  • Orfeo (pasticcio), "melodramma" ( Paolo Antonio Rolli ; London 1736)
  • Lucio Papirio, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Antonio Salvi , Domenico Lalli ; Venice 1737)
  • Rosbale, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Domenico Lalli ; Venice 1737)
  • Marriage of Statira, Queen of Persia (Pasticcio), "Singe Games" in three acts (Roberto Girolamo Frigimelica, Christoph Gottlieb Wend ; Hamburg 1737)
  • Carlo il Calvo, "dramma per musica" in three acts (anonymous after Francesco Silvani ; Rome 1738)
  • Le nozze d'Ercole ed Ebe, "favola per musica" (Naples 1739)
  • Il barone di Zampano, "melodramma" in three acts (Pietro Trinchera; Naples 1739)
  • L'amico fedele, "commedia in musica" (Pietro Giuseppe Di; Naples 1739)
  • Il trionfo di Camilla (I), "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Silvio Stampiglia ; Naples 1740)
  • Tiridate , "dramma per musica" ( Pietro Metastasio : Zenobia ; Naples 1740)
  • Il trionfo del valore (pasticcio), "commedia per musica" in three acts (Antonio Palomba; Naples 1741)
  • Statira, "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Carlo Goldoni after Francesco Silvani ; Venice 1742)
  • Temistocle (II), "dramma per musica" in three acts (Pietro Metastasio; London 1743)
  • Filandro, "dramma comico-pastorale" ( Vincenzo Cassani ; Dresden 1747)
  • Il trionfo di Camilla (II), "dramma per musica" in three acts ( Silvio Stampiglia , Giovanni Battista Lorenzi; Naples 1760)

Serenates

Cantatas

  • 12 cantatas Op. 1 (6 for soprano, 6 for alto, dedicated to the Prince of Wales, London 1735)
  • approx. 60 cantatas, which are widely preserved in manuscripts.

Oratorios

  • Davide e Bersabea (Rolli; London 1734)
  • Gedeone (anonymous; Vienna 1737)

Instrumental music

  • 6 Symphony da camera, Op. 2 (printed London 1736)
  • 12 Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Op. 12 (printed Vienna 1754)
  • 12 trio sonatas for 2 violins and bass (printed Vienna 1754)
  • Sonatas for cello and bass
  • Concerts for violoncello and strings
  • Concerto for flute, strings and bass

Discography (selection)

  • Angelica e Medoro (under the title Orlando ), with Robert Expert (Orlando), Betsabée Haas (Angelica), Olga Pitarch (Medoro), Real Compania Opera da Camera, direction: Juan Bautista Otero, K 617, No.K617177
  • Sonatas for violin and B. c. op.12 , with Anton Steck (violin) and Christian Rieger (harpsichord), MDG, No. 3585344
  • Porpora. Il Vulcano. Cantatas for Soprano, with Maria Laura Martorana (soprano), Brilliant, released 2012
  • Arias for Farinelli by Porpora, with Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Warner, published 2013

literature

Web links

Commons : Nicola Antonio Porpora  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Clive Unger-Hamilton, Neil Fairbairn, Derek Walters; German arrangement: Christian Barth, Holger Fliessbach, Horst Leuchtmann, et al .: The music - 1000 years of illustrated music history . Unipart-Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8122-0132-1 , p. 78 .
  2. ^ Libretto Venice 1731
personal data
SURNAME Porpora, Nicola Antonio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Porpora, Nicolò
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer and singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1686
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1768
Place of death Naples