Nicola Porpora, Siface [opera]

Scope and Content

"SIFACE / DRAMMA PER MUSICA / Poesia / Del Sigr. Pietro Metastasio / Musica".

Score. Sinfonia, recitative, and arias from Nicola Porpora's "Siface", which was first performed in Milan on 26 December 1725. The title was taken from the title-page, which gives the title proper in gold lettering enclosed in a gold frame. The spine title, on a leather patch with gold tooling, is "SIFACE". Although NGMusic (1980 ed.) lists the Mackworth copy as relating to the 7 February 1730 revival at the Teatro Capranica in Rome, recent research by Kurt Markstrom suggests that this is a copy of the Venetian score from 1726 (with minor variants). Casing: vellum. 10-stave MS paper. Apparently in a single hand. Gatherings are numbered. Foliation added for cataloguing. "A ITO SECONDO" and "A ITO TERZO" have title-pages (ff. 75r, 143r) with gold lettering encased in a gold, rectangular frame. The instruments are sometimes specified. Some figures are supplied for the 'bc' (not labelled in this source).