In Britain at least, Porpora is still best known for his operatic
rivalry with Handel in London between 1733 and 1736, when he wrote
for the newly formed Opera of the Nobility set up in competition
with Handel’s Royal Academy of Music. But there is, of course,
much more to Porpora than that relatively brief episode in his
long career.
Born in Naples,
Porpora was both famous as a composer and renowned throughout
Europe as a teacher of singing - his pupils included Farinelli
and Caffarelli. He received his training in Naples at the
Conservatorio dei Poveri de Gesù Cristo. His first major work
was the opera Agrippina, performed in November 1708
in the Neapolitan Royal Palace. He was maestro di capella
at the Conservatorio di San Onofrio in Naples between 1715
and 1721, and his reputation as a composer led to commissions
and performances in Rome, Milan, Vienna and elsewhere.
Naturally enough
his work as an operatic composer was central to his reputation.
But he also composed sacred works, chamber music, pieces for
harpsichord – and well over a hundred solo cantatas. Indeed,
some connoisseurs judged it to be in the cantatas that Porpora
was to be heard at his best (even if they also often had their
reservations too). In his Essay on Musical Expression,
Charles Avison writes thus:
“Porpora’s
cantatas deserve … a particular mention … The most
agreeable changes in modulation, from one movement to another,
may be found in many of these, his master-pieces. The adagios
are generally, indeed, too much lengthened; by which means
they are rather tedious when repeated from Da Capo:
and notwithstanding I have thought the subjects in them pleasing,
and have heard them very finely performed; yet could I never
be convinced, that their author had learned the art of knowing
when he had done enough” (quoted from the third edition of
1775).
Listening to this
fine recording of four of Porpora’s cantatas it is not hard
to share some of Avison’s pleasure – and perhaps a few of
his reservations too. Given his experience as a teacher, it
is not surprising that Porpora should write so well for the
voice. Certainly the excellent Elena Cecchi Fedi finds in
Porpora’s writing, whether in the superbly judged recitatives
or in the arias, a vehicle for some marvellously engaging
singing. Each of the cantatas is in several movements. Two
of them (‘Credimi pur che t’amo’ and ‘Or che d’orrido Verno’)
begin with a short Sinfonia, that for ‘Credimi pur che t’amo’
having three short movements of its own. The alternation of
arias and recitatives allows some sharp distinctions and expressive
contrasts. Porpora displays considerable skill and invention
in his use of the conventions of recitative, and offers more
than a few apt and attractive melodies, but it has to be said,
in agreement with Avison, that concision is not Poprpora’s
most obvious virtue. Still, advantages far outweigh disadvantages
in this thoroughly enjoyable recital.
The texts are
– predictably enough – declarations of love (or in one case
a foreswearing of Cupid and all his insidie e inganni).
Without resort to crude word-painting, Porpora’s writing is
everywhere attentive to the emotional nuances of his text
and at the same time thoroughly imbued with an unexaggerated
sense of the dramatic. With the musicians of Auser Musici
vivacious and sympathetic in their support of the singer,
this is a collection which will surely bring pleasure to every
lover of the baroque Italian cantata. If you have discs of
Handel’s Italian cantatas on your shelves (without wanting
to start another Handel-Porpora rivalry!), or possess recordings
of cantatas by, say, Alessandro Scarlatti or Antonio Caldara,
you are strongly advised to add these splendid examples of
the genre, in excellent performances, to your collection.
Glyn Pursglove