Nicola Porpora was a Neapolitan composer and the most celebrated singing teacher of the Baroque era, training many of the great castrati and, briefly, the young Joseph Haydn. His operas and vocal works epitomized the ornate, virtuosic Italian bel canto style that swept eighteenth-century Europe, and for a time in London he was a direct rival to Handel. He ended his life in poverty despite his enormous influence on the art of singing.

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1735

Alto Giove (from Polifemo)Nicola Porpora