Porpora, Nicola (Antonio)
- Kurt Markstrom
- and Michael F. Robinson
Extract
(Antonio)
(b Naples, Aug 17, 1686; d Naples, March 3, 1768). Italian musician. He was internationally famous during his lifetime both as a composer (particularly of vocal music and opera) and as a singing teacher.
Kurt Markstrom
He was the son of Caterina and Carlo Porpora, the latter a Neapolitan bookseller. On 29 September 1696 he was enrolled at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo, where Greco is assumed to have been his composition teacher. His fees were waived after the first three years; presumably by 1699 he was earning his keep as a student teacher. His first commission was for an opera, L’Agrippina (1708), which was successful, although it was several years before he obtained another commission. The libretto of his second opera Flavio Anicio Olibrio, performed during Carnival 1711, describes him as maestro di cappella to Prince Philipp of Hesse-Darmstadt, the general of the Austrian army in Naples. By the time of the prince’s departure from Naples in ...
