Allegory, Genre and Interpretation in Nicola Porpora's Oratorio per la nascita di Gesù Christo (1747-8) - his setting of Il Verbo in carne by Giovanni Giuseppe Giron

This thesis identifies and addresses the issues inherent in preparations for a performance of the two-part Oratorio per la nascita di Gesù Cristo – written in 1748 by Nicola Porpora during his tenure as voice tutor to Maria Antonia Walburg[is] in Dresden. Here, the libretto text and musical scores (brought together in a new critical edition) combine with a variety of different, seemingly peripheral, sources that are shown to subtly influence interpretation. Questions as to the copyists’ contributions are addressed, both in the new critical edition, and in the thesis proper, as are aspects of the deeper history of this work, and of the form of Giovanni Giuseppe Giron’s libretto text. Two key findings are: the copyist of the first variant score, now established to be Fortunato Santini; that the personages are not only Virtues, but are the Daughters of God. The use of allegorical characters to communicate a spiritual message stems from Jewish and Christian teaching, and the history of these characters – three of the Four Daughters of God – is discussed, revealing a link between this composition and sacred cantatas performed at the Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican, Rome. This link invites a retrospective genre-term change, from oratorio to Cantata spirituale. But how do the questions surrounding genre-term attribution, or allegorical personages, or the copyists’ contribution (amongst others) influence a performance? Ultimately it is the individual that must choose the balance of sources to inform their own performance. But, to achieve this, the variety of sources needs to be known and understood. In this thesis, I suggest multiple pathways through the labyrinth of sources and discuss their impact. I do not aim to present a template for performance preparation – an absolute – but rather to reveal the variety of options that can easily be applied in the construction of a crafted performance.