Porpora

Porpora, NICCOLA, musical composer, was born at Naples, on 19th August 1686, trained there in music, and, having produced some successful operas, was appointed master of the conservatorio of San Onofrio (1722). Shortly before that he had established a school for singing, from which came some of the greatest singers the world has known, as Farinelli, Caffarelli, Salimbeni, and Uberti. From 1725 to after 1755 he led an unsettled life, though he stayed some time at Dresden, at Venice, in London (with Farinelli, 1734-36), and in Vienna, composing music, chiefly operas (though none rises above the level of conventional respectability), and teaching singing; at Vienna he taught Haydn. Of his other musical compositions a series of cantatas (twelve published in London in 1735), several sonatas for the violin, and six fugues for the clavichord are written with considerable freshness. He died at Naples in 1766 or 1767, and now is chiefly known through George Sand's Consuelo.