Composer Giovanni Porta was born around 1677 probably in Venice where his opera Argippo was premiered in 1717. One of the leading Venetian composers, Porta made his way from Rome to Verona, before crossing to London where his opera Numitore was performed in 1720 by Handel’s Royal Academy of Music at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket. Porta was in Naples in 1725, before returning to Venice and Verona. He spent the final two decades of his life in Munich where the talented Maria Walpurgis, Princess of Bavaria and Electress of Saxony, was one of his pupils. He died in June 1755.