The composer
Vivaldi in Venice
Where Antonio Vivaldi was born, taught and worked in Venice, and why a Venetian ensemble playing his music in the city still matters.
Book the Four Seasons concert ↗Quick answer
Born in Venice on 4 March 1678, Antonio Vivaldi trained for the priesthood and from 1703 taught violin at the Ospedale della Pietà. His red hair earned him the nickname the Red Priest. He died in Vienna in 1741. Venice is where his music was written and first heard, which is why a Venetian ensemble playing him feels at home.
Born in Venice
Wikipedia says Antonio Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678 in Venice, then the capital of the Republic of Venice. His father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, was a barber who became a professional violinist and taught his son the violin. The family trade shows where the boy’s first lessons came from: a violin at home, in a city that made instruments and loved music.
A priest with a violin
His priestly studies began in 1693, when he was fifteen, and he was ordained in 1703. Wikipedia adds that he was excused from saying public Masses, likely because of poor health. He became known as Il Prete Rosso, the Red Priest, a name that most likely comes from his red hair, a family trait.
The Pietà and its music
The Ospedale della Pietà, a convent, orphanage and music school, took Vivaldi on as violin master in September 1703. According to Wikipedia’s article on it, the girls called figlie di coro sang and played sacred music for select audiences, and much of Vivaldi’s sacred vocal and instrumental music was written for performance there. The nearby church of the Pietà was finished in 1761, two decades after his death. He rose to head of concerts in 1716.
Away and back
Vivaldi left for Mantua around 1717 or 1718, to serve Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the city’s governor, and stayed for about three years. Wikipedia places the composition of the Four Seasons in that period. He went on to write more than 50 operas, beginning with Ottone in villa, staged in Vicenza in 1713.
The end in Vienna
Wikipedia says he died in Vienna on 28 July 1741, aged 63, in poverty, shortly after the death of Emperor Charles VI left him without imperial patronage. He was buried in a simple grave in the Bürgerspital-Gottesacker cemetery, next to St Charles Church in Vienna, and memorial plaques mark the location. His music then fell into obscurity after the Baroque period and was rediscovered in the 20th century.
Operas and years on the move
Wikipedia says Vivaldi wrote more than 50 operas. His first, Ottone in villa, was performed in Vicenza in 1713, and among his best-known are Juditha triumphans in 1716 and Farnace in 1730. The same article describes him as a priest who could not say public Mass, a violin teacher, a concerto composer and an opera composer. Those are four careers in one life, all of which began in a Venice that loved theatre and music.
What the Pietà was
Wikipedia’s article on the Ospedale della Pietà says it began as a hospice for the needy and that a group of nuns founded it in the fourteenth century as a charity for orphans and abandoned girls. Its all-female ensembles were known across Europe, and its orchestra counted up to sixty. Concerts were given for select audiences, with a metal grill separating performers from listeners. Vivaldi’s link to the place is part of the history the Four Seasons concert draws on, not something the concert recreates.
Why a Venetian ensemble
The ensemble’s website says it plays in the places that shaped the history of Baroque music in Venice. Its Palazzo Zaguri concerts bring the music to a historic palace, with the museum’s collection of Venetian and Italian instruments next door. Venetian violin makers such as Matteo Goffriller, who Wikipedia says arrived in Venice in 1685 and was for some 25 years the city’s only violin and cello maker, worked in the city in Vivaldi’s lifetime.
Frequently asked questions
What year and day was Vivaldi born?
On 4 March 1678 in Venice, according to Wikipedia.
Why was he called the Red Priest?
Likely for his red hair, a family trait. He was ordained in 1703.
Where did he die?
In Vienna on 28 July 1741, aged 63, according to Wikipedia.
Sources