Prota

Prota , famialy of Italian musicians:

(1) Ignazio Prota , composer; b. Naples, Sept. 15, 1690; d. there, Jan. 1748. He spent his entire life in Naples, where he studied with his uncle, Filippo Prota, a priest and maestro di cappella at S. Giorgio Maggiore, and with Gaetano Veneziano and Giuliano Perugino at the Cons. S. Maria di Loreto. From 1722 he was maestro at the Cons. S. Onofrio a Capuana. Prota wrote the first opera buffa in the Neapolitan dialect, La fenta fattucchiera (Naples, 1721; not extant). He had 2 sons who were musicians:

(2) Tommaso Prota , composer; b. Naples, date unknown; d. after 1768. He studied at the Cons. S. Maria di Loreto in Naples, and then was active in various Italian cities. He wrote 3 stage works (all lost), some instrumental pieces, and various vocal scores.

(3) Giuseppe Prota , oboist and teacher; b. Naples, Dec. 3, 1737; d. there, July 21, 1807. His career was centered on Naples, where he studied at the Cons. S. Maria di Loreto with Cherubino Corona, hi 1762 he succeeded his teacher there as an instructor in oboe, bassoon, and flute. From 1778 he was oboist in the royal chapel and from 1779 an instructor in wind instruments at the Cons. della Pietà dei Turchini.

(4) Gabriele Porta , composer, grandson of (1) Ignazio Prota ; b. Naples, May 19, 1755; d. there, June 22, 1843. He was maestro of the Ss. Annunziata church in Naples in 1780, and then at the monastery church of S. Chiara. His marriage to the Parisian Rosalie Laurent led him to embrace her Jacobin sentiments. After the Republican uprising in 1799, they were both arrested. When Joseph Buonaparte took the throne of Naples in 1806, he made Rosalie director of the music school for women, where Gabriele served as maestro di cappella and a singing teacher. He wrote Ezio, opera seria (Perugia, Carnival 1784), La furberie, opera buffa (Naples, Carnival 1793), Le donne dispettose, opera buffa (Naples, Carnival 1784), La furberie, opera buffa (Naples, May 1796), and several sacred vocal pieces. His son was also a musician:

(5) Givoanni Prota , pedagogue and composer; b. Naples, c. 1786; d. there, June 13?, 1843. He pursued his career in Naples, where he was a voice teacher and maestro e compositore at the Real Casa d’Educazione Miracoli, the Regina Isabella Borane school for young Neapolitan noblewomen, from about 1820. For Naples, he composed II servo furbo, opera buffa (Carnival 1803), Amor dal naufragio, opera buffa (Jan. 1810), and II cimento felice, opera semiseria (1815). Among his other works were instrumental pieces and much sacred vocal music.

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire