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Antonio Vivaldi
1678 – 1741
Antonio Vivaldi celebrated his 332nd birthday on 4th March 2010. He was one of the most productive composers of the Baroque era. His vast output included substantial quantities of chamber and vocal music, some 46 operas and a remarkable 500 concertos...
Life and Music
- A colourful character with an eye for the ladies, Vivaldi defied a lifetime of ill-health by regularly absenting himself from his home base of Venice in a desperate attempt to establish an international reputation.
- Compared to such all-encompassing musical 'heavyweights' as Bach and Handel, it is probably fair to say that Vivaldi possessed a rather limited expressive range and had a tendency to fall back on well-proven musical devices.
- The exact date of Vivaldi's birth (4th March 1678) confounded scholars for many years, although it was known that following his delivery the midwife performed an emergency baptism. The reason for his emergency baptism is not known for certain but is likely due to his poor health or to an earthquake that shook Venice on that day.
- Vivaldi's father, Giovanni Battista, was a violinist at St Mark's Cathedral, and although he taught the prodigiously gifted Antonio to play from early childhood, a musical career seemed unlikely, especially when, aged 15, he was shunted off to join the priesthood.
- He studied for 10 years, received Holy Orders in 1703 and earned the nickname "il prete rosso" (the red priest) from the distinctive colour of his hair.
- By September 1703 Vivaldi had already secured his first professional appointment as maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale della Pieta, one of four orphanages for girls in Venice. Remarkably, this was to remain his base for the greater part of his life, from 1703 to 1740, though with several prolonged 'leaves of absence'.
- It was largely for the highly gifted members of the Pieta that Vivaldi composed his remarkable series of instrumental concertos.
- From 1718 to 1720 he was based in Mantua and then spent most of the 1720s commuting between Rome and Venice, occasionally posting parcels of his latest concertos to the Pieta from the Italian capital.
- Throughout the 1730s Vivaldi continued to travel widely - to Bohemia, Austria and throughout Italy - despite the fact that his worsening health meant taking an expensive entourage of carers. Among these 'carers' were the talented operatic contralto Anna Giro and her sister Paolina.
- Short of funds and desperately unwell, the 62-year-old Vivaldi made one last, ill-advised trip to Vienna in the hope of rekindling former glories.
- Destitute and alone, he passed away in Vienna on 28 July 1741 and was buried cheaply the same day in a hospital cemetery which sadly no longer exists.
- It was not until the 1920s, when his private collection of original scores was unearthed, that his name began to be more widely circulated.
Did you know?
Because Vivaldi was a priest, he was not allowed to marry or have a girlfriend, but it was largely believed that both Anna and Paolina Giro were Vivaldi's girlfriends at the same time!
