He was the maestro di cappella of several Neapolitan churches; the composer of ten operas, five of which premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; and a teacher of composition and singing whose students included Stefano Pavesi and Saverio Mercadante.

In 1783 his father enrolled him in the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio in Naples where he studied violin under Michele Nasci and counterpoint and composition under Giuseppe Millico, Giacomo Insanguine, and Niccolò Piccinni.

According to musicologist Maria Caraci Vela, the work had an unusual plot in which Ferdinand IV was identified with its protagonist Cyrus the Younger and music which displayed "a rich symphonic and choral texture."

The opera introduced elements of the French operatic style including the use of massed choruses to drive the dramatic action forward.

In an 1811 decree by Joachim Murat, Capotorti, Giacomo Tritto, Giovanni Paisiello and Fedele Fenaroli were appointed examiners of the Reale Collegio di Musica.

This was despite having composed Inno per il faustissimo giorno onomastico di Sua Maestà Ferdinando IV, a staged cantata to honour Ferdinand's name day.

[1][5] Capotorti's portrait painted by Raffaele Armenise in 1899 was one of four large medallions depicting famous composers from Apulia which decorated the main auditorium of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

To mark the 250th anniversary of Capotorti's birth in 2017, his native city of Molfetta organized a series of events that included the first public performance of four of Capotorti's hitherto unpublished pieces of sacred music: Nuova Messa per Solennità Festiva, Dio vi salvi, Inno a San Francesco da Paola, and Sestina in onore di Santa Filomena.