PORPORA, NICOLA ANTONIO. - Composer and teacher, b. in Napoli on 19 Aug. 1686, d. there on 12 Feb. 1766. He studied music at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Cristo in Napoli.
In 1712 he opened a singing school which provided the art with numerous distinguished teachers. He was subsequently in Venezia as a teacher at the Conservatorio; in Dresda as court chapel master; in Londra and again in Venezia, having his operas successfully performed everywhere; then in Vienna, where G. Haydn was his pupil. Having returned to Napoli, he was chapel master at the Cathedral and teacher at the Conservatorio di S. Maria di Loreto. Besides some 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 rigorous and solid contrapuntist, with an easy and elegant melodic gift. Some of his compositions are found in modern collections or recent editions.