Porpora’s Sinfonia a tre is a two-movement trio sonata in the Corellian style (a manuscript copy of the work calls it “Concerto a 3”).  The Neapolitan Porpora was famous as a composer and singing teacher; Farinelli was his student. Porpora’s career took him as far as London, where he composed operas for a company set up to compete with Handel’s in the 1730s, but he returned to Italy when that competition ran both companies into the ground. He succeededthe Neapolitan composer Gennaro D’Alessandro as the Pietà’s maestro di chori in 1740 and stayed until 1742.