Sacred music written for female singers and instrumentalists of the Ospedali became celebrated during the 18th century. This unique musical tradition became widely famous largely through the works of such notable composers as Vivaldi, Hasse, Porpora and Galuppi, who were active as teachers at the four "Ospedali grandi".

LA VOIX DES RÊVES - Greatest Moments in Concert” (available on DVD & Blu Ray) features video footage from a number of occasions and venues – including items from a concert given among the crystal chandeliers of the splendid Galerie des Glaces in the palace of Versailles, and works by Handel and Vivaldi performed in another jewel of French Baroque architecture, the sumptuously decorated Chapelle de la Trinité in Lyon.

Nicola Porpora’s Op 1 set of Italian chamber cantatas receive a new and striking reading directed by Stefano Aresi, a leading interpreter of the Late Baroque composer. Neapolitan-born Porpora brought his nuove musiche with him in the early 1730s when he had set out for London (with his pupil Farinelli) to take advantage of the perceived wavering of Handel’s operatic fame there. Porpora, espying an opportunity there just as Handel himself had done before, quickly ingratiated himself with the nobility in Britain and his 12 cantatas, though probably written in Naples, were published under the patronage of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales of Great Britain. They enjoyed substantial success at the time, and reflecting the primacy of Italian music across Europe, not least through Porpora’s masterly settings of Pietro Metastasio’s texts extolling Arcadian tastes and ideals.

Recording an album of arias written expressly for Farinelli, one of the most legendary castratos of the eighteenth century, is brave; his name invokes a world of superhuman vocal feats, remarkable pathos, and a uniquely strong and brilliant tone that, for obvious anatomical reasons, will not be replicated by modern singers. But that clearly does not scare Vivica Genaux who, along with René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, dives into Farinelli's repertory as if it were her very own. She reveals a voice capable of dizzying speed and agility, and a refreshing ability to find in the highly ornamented, expression-through-excess style that typified opera seria of the time a sincerity and musical integrity that makes a case for its wider exploration.

The young Russian soprano makes her solo debut on Decca with cantatas by Handel, Mozart, Porpora and Vivaldi which showcase her scintillating coloratura, tonal clarity and warmth, and radiant middle register; Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini accompany with panache.

Nicola Porpora is a mostly forgotten figure in composition today; however, he exerted considerable influence as a teacher in his day, and much of his own compositional output is of exceptional quality. He made his chief contribution in the vocal realm, having written many worthwhile secular and sacred operas, oratorios, serenatas, and cantatas. Porpora helped to enrich the melodic qualties of vocal music by drawing on greater technical resources – which he understood as well as any contemporary.

Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768) was a celebrated composer and singing teacher, his ability to set the Italian language to music was internationally acknowledged during his lifetime. In a career that spanned almost 70 years Porpora worked in Naples, Rome, Venice, London, Dresden and Vienna. As a singing teacher he created stars such as Farinelli, Caffarelli and Porporino. Much of his compositional output is of exceptional quality. He made his chief contribution in the vocal realm, having written many worthwhile secular and sacred operas, oratorios, serenatas and cantatas, as well as various lamentations and duets.

Porpora was born on August 17, 1686, in Naples. He showed talent early in his childhood, and at the age of ten was placed in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesu Cristo. Not much is known about his teachers there, but upon his departure he was well-grounded in voice and composition. His first opera, Agrippina, came in 1708, though he took three years to produce his next significant work in any genre.

'Orlando' is an operatic masterpiece by the Neapolitan Composer Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) who left an indelible mark on the 18th century and the careers of its greatest masters, from Hasse, Jommelli and Handel to Joseph Haydn, who was his pupil in Vienna. Against the background of the old Carolingian epic, the valiant knight Roland is transformed here into a lover before becoming 'Orlando furioso' in this encounter of three mythical figures: Ariosto, Metastasio and Porpora. The gamut runs from epic to tragedy in this vibrant, crackling performance under the inspired direction of Juan Bautista Otero.

With her enchanting voice, profound musicality and extraordinary vocal range, the Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin has been seducing audiences and critics around the world. Following the immense success of her CD Handel Arias, she returns with a new recording of arias, most never recorded, from the operas of Nicola Porpora (1686-1768).

At the end of a brief but brilliant career - his compositions cover a period of just over six years - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi worte his last two works, the 'Stabat Mater' and the 'Salve Regina' in C minor. Nicola Porpora's 'Salve Regina' for solo voice and instruments, recorded here for the first time, was probably written during the composer's stay in Venice as 'maestro di cappella' of the Ospedale degli Incurabili, from 1726 to 1733, no doubt for one of the young ladies attending the musical establishment.

THE ILLUSTRIOUS Neapolitan singing teacher Nicola Porpora (1686–1768) was also a notable composer. The core of his output consisted of more than fifty opere serie,with texts by the best-known librettists of the day. Live performances of these works remain rare, but we can rejoice in all-Porpora CDs by a number of virtuoso countertenors, among them this one by Max Emanuel Cencic. Even if his disc hadn’t included seven world-premiere recordings, it would still merit significant attention, thanks to his exceptional vocalism.

Speaking in gneral about Porpora, and in particular his Ariadne, in 1910 the French musicographer Romain Rolland wrote ""Histor didn't do him justice. He was fit to compete with Handel, and the comparison between Handel's Ariadne and Porpora's, staged a few weeks apart, is not at all in favour of the former. Handel's music is elegant; but doesn't have the strength of certain arias in Porpora's Ariadne in Naxos. These arias' form has an excessively classical regularity; but powerful inspiration circulates through these Roman temples."" The common place of Porpora, a singing teacher ready to subordinate everything to his pupils' voices, must be reflected upon in the light of the vocal writing in these pages: in which belcanto flourishes are generally administered abundantly and in each case almost always justified by musial and expressive reasons and immersed in the character's specific dimension.

«A most famous composer in London at the time of Haendel and a great protagonist of the Ospedali musicali in Venice, Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1768) is nevertheless forgotten gloomily of our musical culture. To the rare discographic recordings dedicated to his music, we can add this one, conducted magnificently by Jérôme Correas. (…) Correas interpretation is sensitive, vivid and it stands like a mirror of Porpora's vocal vuirtuosity ; this exaggerated virtuosity is here a natural and vital component of the score, fostering an atmosphere of fervent mysticism (…) that arouse emotions.»

Massimo R.Zegna, Amadeus

Nicola Porpora was a Napolitan composer of Baroque operas and singing teacher, whose the most famous singing student was the castrato Farinelli. Besides some four dozen operas, there are oratorios, solo cantatas with keyboard accompaniment, motets and vocal serenades. Among his larger works, his 1720 opera Orlando, his Venetian Vespers, and the opera Arianna in Nasso have been recorded.