Nicola Antonio Porpora Operatic Arias by Various, Sa. 17 Sept. 2022, Ab (2022/2022), Dirigat Martyna Pastuszka, Markgräfliches Opernhaus, Bayreuth, Deutschland

Nicola Antonio Porpora was born in 1686 in a poverty-stricken quarter of Naples and also died there in 1768, likewise in dire poverty. During the in-between years he advanced to become one of the most influential exponents of the Italian opera seria, working from his home city as base at first in centres such as Rome and Venice, and vying with Leonardo Vinci for the rank of the leading Italian opera composer of the age. In 1733 he was engaged in London to rival George Frideric Handel and to intrigue against his operatic empire. Besides his work as a composer Porpora was primarily renowned also as a feared singing teacher, who used to maltreat his pupils but could also get the best out of them. Among his pupils were star castrati who are still famous today, including Farinelli, Caffarelli and Antonio Uberti, who called himself by the stage name of Porporino in honour of his teacher. Porpora’s music was adored among the singers of the time; as singing teacher and connoisseur of voices he reacted in his operas to the specific qualities of each cast, flattered the voices, and drove vocal skills to the ultimate in achievement. The Russian soprano Julia Lezhneva – who was already the cause of cheering ovations in Bayreuth as Gildippe in Porpora’s Carlo il Calvo and as Galatea in his Polifemo – lets the profound emotions of Porpora’s arias resound in the stratosphere of the soprano range, in beauty of sound, and in technical brilliance.