Born in Naples in 1686 and deceased in the same city in 1768 Nicola Antonio Porpora is today considered as one of the most important composers of his generation, as well as a fundamental point of reference for the history of eighteenth-century music. That Porpora was an excellent writer for the human voice and an excellent singing teacher is a fact that seems to have never been forgotten over the centuries that separate us from his artistic and biographical exploit.
For Porpora and his singers vocal virtuosity was primarily a fundamental linguistic tool to communicate ideas, and not merely a display of circus tricks. There is obsessive attention to detail, an intellectually sophisticated vision of the melodic line and its relationship with the accompaniment. Porpora is part of that generation of Neapolitan composers of birth or formation (like Leonardo Vinci and Leonardo Leo) who were largely responsible for a series of important stylistic innovations that deeply affected the contemporary Italian opera scene. These innovations were clearly exported to the international scene from the mid-1720’s and had their peak in the 1740’s.
This programme offers the listener, in this context, an interesting benefit. It combines arias of very different characters and chronological and geographical origins. They are written for different performers in different contexts, and are part of works that belong to different genres. They are the perfect tools to show the high value of a singer as well as the composer’s ability to allure the listener’s ears to bewitch the listener’s intellect. © Challenge Records