When Porpora (1686-1768) arrived in London for the 1733/34 opera season, his intention was to preside over the launch of a new theatre company aiming to break Handel’s virtual monopoly on the the London “dramma per musica” world. The company, called “Opera of the Nobility”, no less, was created to perform the most contemporary Italian music, with truly exceptional singers such as Farinelli and other stars of that era. The 1735 release of Porpora’s Nuovamente composte opre di musica vocale (i.e. the Cantates Op. 1) fitted into this social and artistic sphere. In these twelve Italian chamber cantatas (six for soprano, six for alto), poet Metastasio borrowed from the Arcadian themes very much in vogue at the time. This collection was bound to become one of Porpora’s greatest success, and seemed deliberately designed as a “catalogue” of the Neapolitan composer’s various expressive, formal and stylistic skills. The edition is luxurious – with no price tag, the sign of a valuable object with limited diffusion – and includes corrections and versions inserted by Porpora during various prints, a precious testimony of the partition’s evolution throughout its diffusion. On the first page, the composer mentioned that the cantatas had been composed to please the “delicate taste” of Frederick, Prince of Wales (who died at a young age in 1751 and never reigned, but whose son George III became King), even if it’s very likely that some of the music had already been composed long before Porpora’s arrival in England – but who could have found out… Actually, someone did: one of his student, Giuseppe Sigismondo: ” [Porpora] left for London with Farinelli to compensate for Handel’s deficiencies in heroic theatre. But clever as a fox, he completed his series of twelve cantatas with continuo and no other instrument, and as soon as he arrived in London, released them in an elegant edition in 1735.”
The series of cantatas were instantly successful: they quickly became one of the most beloved vocal works of the 18th century and were widely released through private copies. He became universally admired, so much so that as late as 1820 the Parisian publisher Choron released a new complete edition of the collection: during the 19th century, particularly in German-speaking spheres, the cantatas were included in “Hausmusik” anthologies – with piano accompaniment! It’s worth noticing the strong melodic nature of the bass line, which is most likely the result of Prince Frederick’s appreciation for the cello – an instrument he must have played with royal talent, given the partition’s extreme difficulty. Even voices are used to the extreme: delicate ornamentations, perilous intervals, infinite lines… No doubt, these works are the peak of Italian chamber cantatas, designed for a very small circle of connoisseurs and virtuosos deliberately restricted to the alcove of aristocratic salons. The four singers of the Stile Galante ensemble − Francesca Cassinari and Emanuela Galli, sopranos, Giuseppina Bridelli and Marina De Liso, contraltos – sing all twelve cantatas. © SM/Qobuz