PORPORA, NICOLA ANTONIO. – Composer and maestro. Born in Naples on 19 August 1686, died there on 12 February 1766. He studied music at the Conservatory of the Poveri di Cristo in Naples.
In 1712 he opened a singing school which produced numerous and distinguished masters for the art. He then went to Venice as a teacher at the Conservatory; to Dresden as court Kapellmeister; to London and again to Venice, where his operas were performed successfully everywhere. He then went to Vienna, where he had G. Haydn as a pupil. Returning to Naples, he became Kapellmeister at the Cathedral and a teacher at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto. In addition to some fifty stage works, he composed the oratorios Gedeone, David e Bersabea, S. Eugenia, S. Giovanni Nepomuceno, masses, psalms, motets, madrigals, cantatas, and symphonies. Porpora was a strict and robust contrapuntist with a facile and elegant melodic vein. Some of his compositions are found in modern collections or recent editions.