Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741), nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"), was a baroque composer and Venetian priest, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist, born and raised in the Republic of Venice. The Four Seasons , a series of four violin concerti, is his best-known work and a highly popular baroque piece.
Biography
Childhood
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice, the capital of the Republic of Venice in 1678. He was baptized immediately after his birth at his home by the midwife. It is not known how the life of the infant was in danger, but the immediate baptism was most likely due to his poor health or to an earthquake that shook the city that day. In the trauma of the event, Vivaldi’s mother may have dedicated him to a life of priesthood even though Vivaldi eventually lost interest in the role of priest. Vivaldi's official church baptism (at least, the rites that remained other than the actual baptism itself) did not take place until two months later. Vivaldi’s parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora. Vivaldi had five siblings: Margarita Gabriela, Cecilia Maria, Bonaventura Tomaso, Zanetta Anna, and Francesco Gaetano. Giovanni Battista, a barber before becoming a professional violinist, taught him to play violin and then toured Venice playing the violin with his young son. He probably taught him at an early age, as evidenced by Vivaldi’s extensive musical knowledge at age 24 when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà.. Giovanni Battista was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia , a sort of trade union for musicians and composers. The president of the association was Giovanni Legrenzi, the maestro di cappella at St. Mark's Basilica and noted early baroque composer. It is possible that the young Antonio's first lessons in composition were imparted by him. The Luxembourg scholar Walter Kolneder sees in the early liturgical work Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31, written in 1691 at the age of 13) the influence of Legrenzi's style. His father may have been a composer himself: in 1689, an opera titled La Fedeltà sfortunata was composed by a Giovanni Battista Rossi, and this was the name under which Vivaldi's father had joined the Sovvegno di Santa Cecilia ("Rossi" for "Red", because of the colour of his hair, a family trait).
Vivaldi had a health problem, probably a form of asthma, which did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, compose or take part in many musical activities. It did however stop him from playing wind instruments because of shortness of breath. At the age of 15 in the year of 1693, he began studying to become a priest. In 1703, at the age of 25, Vivaldi was ordained a priest and was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso , "The Red Priest", because of his red hair.
Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a reprieve from celebrating the Holy Mass because of his ill health. Vivaldi only said mass as a priest a few times because of his strettezza di petto , or what we interpret to be asthma. From that point onward, he appears to have withdrawn from active practice, but did remain a priest.
At the Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pietà
In September 1703, Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice. While Vivaldi is most known as a composer, he was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well. The German architect Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach referred to Vivaldi as “the famous composer and violinist” and said that “Vivaldi played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion.”. Vivaldi was only 25 when he started working at the Ospedale della Pietà and he composed most of his major works while working there for the next thirty years of his life. There were four such institutions in Venice; their purpose was to give shelter and education to children who were abandoned, orphaned, or whose families could not support them. They were financed by funds provided by the Republic. The boys learned a trade and had to leave at age 15. The girls received a musical education, and the most talented stayed and became members of the Ospedale's renowned orchestra and choir.
Shortly after his appointment, the orphans began to gain appreciation and esteem abroad, too; Vivaldi wrote most of his concertos, cantatas, and sacred music for them. Vivaldi also wrote sacred vocal music, which was mainly written for the Ospedale della Pietà.. These sacred works, which number over 60, include many different kinds of works, including solo motets and large-scale choral works for soloists, double chorus, and orchestra.. In 1704, the position of teacher of viola all'inglese was added to his duties as violin instructor. The position of maestro di coro , which was at one time filled by Vivaldi, required much time and work. He had to compose an oratorio or concerto at every feast and teach the orphans how to play certain instruments and theory.
His relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often strained. The board had to take a vote every year on whether to keep a teacher. The vote on Vivaldi was seldom unanimous, and in 1709, he lost his job after a 7 against 6 vote. After a year as a freelance musician, he was recalled by the Ospedale with a unanimous vote in 1711; clearly the board had realized the importance of his role by then. In 1713, he became responsible for the musical activity of the institution. Vivaldi was promoted to maestro di' concerti (music director) in 1716.
It was during these years that Vivaldi wrote much of his music, including many operas and concerti. In 1705, the first collection ( Connor Cassara ) of his works was published: his Opus 1 is a collection of 12 sonatas for two violins and basso continuo, still in a conventional style. His first printed collected, written in 1705, was published by Giuseppe Sala.. In 1709, a second collection of 12 sonatas for violin & basso continuo appeared (Opus 2). The real breakthrough came with his first collection of 12 concerti for one, two, and four violins with strings, L'estro armonico (Opus 3), which was published in Amsterdam in 1711 by Estienne Roger. L’estro armonico was dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany, a musician himself who sponsored many musicians like Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel. Vivaldi probably met him in Venice. This was a resounding success all over Europe, and was followed in 1714 by La stravaganza (Opus 4), a collection of concerti for solo violin and strings. La stravaganza was dedicated an old violin student of Vivaldi’s, Vettor Dolfin, who was also a Venetian noble..
In February 1711, Vivaldi and his father went to Brescia, where his setting of the Stabat Mater (RV 621) was played as part of a religious festival. The work seems to have been written in haste: the string parts are simple, the music of the first three movements is repeated in the next three, and not all the text is set. However, and in part as a consequence of the forced essentiality of the music, the work reveals musical and emotional depth and is one of his early masterpieces.
In 1718, Vivaldi began to travel. Despite his frequent travels, the Pietà paid him to write two concerti a month for the orchestra and to rehearse with them at least five times when in Venice. The Pietà's records show that he was paid for 140 concerti between 1723 and 1733.
Opera impresario
In the Venice of the early 18th century, opera was the most popular musical entertainment and the most profitable for the composer. There were several theaters competing for the public attention. Vivaldi started his career as opera writer in undertone: his first opera, Ottone in villa (RV 729) was performed not in Venice, but at the Garzerie theater in Vicenza in 1713. The following year, Vivaldi made the jump to Venice and became the impresario of the theater Sant'Angelo in Venice, where his opera Orlando finto pazzo (RV 727) was performed. However, the work did not meet the public's taste, and Vivaldi had to close it after a couple of weeks and replace it with a rerun of a different work already given the previous year. In 1715, he presented Nerone fatto Cesare (RV 724, lost), with music by seven different composers, of which he was the leader, with eleven arias. This time it was a success, and in the late season, Vivaldi planned to give an opera completely of his own hand, Arsilda regina di Ponto (RV 700). However, the state censor blocked the performance, objecting to the plot: the main character, Arsilda, falls in love with another woman, Lisea, who is pretending to be a man. Vivaldi managed to get the opera through censorship the following year, and it was eventually per
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