PORPORA, NICOLA ANTONIO. - Composer and teacher, b. in Naples on 19 Aug. 1686, d. there on 12 Feb. 1766. He studied music at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Cristo in Naples.

In 1712 he opened a singing school that gave to art numerous and valiant masters. He was then in Venice as a teacher at the Conservatory; in Dresden as court chapel master, in London and again in Venice, having his operas performed everywhere with success, then in Vienna where he had G. Haydn as a pupil. Having returned to Naples, he was chapel master at the Cathedral and a teacher at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto. In addition to about fifty theatrical works, he composed the oratorios Gedeone, David e Bersabea, S. Eugenia, S. Giovanni Nepomuceno, masses, psalms, motets, madrigals, cantatas and symphonies. P. was a severe and robust contrapuntist with an easy and elegant melodic vein. Some of his compositions are in modern collections or in recent editions.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: M. Villarosa, Mem. dei conservatori di musica del Regno di Napoli, Naples 1840, p. 282 ff.; Fr. Florimo, La scuola musicale di Napoli, II, ibid. 1882, pp. 310-19; S. Di Giacomo, I quattro antichi conservatori di musica in Napoli, Palermo 1925.

Silverio Mattei

@incollection{ec9_porpora_nicola_antonio, author = {Mattei, Silverio}, title = {Porpora, nicola antonio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1773}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/porpora-nicola-antonio} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Porpora, Nicola Antonio

About this entry