Antonio Lucio Vivaldi

Music from the Heaven~
~Antonio Vivaldi~
This was my story~
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi~ll Prete Rosso
Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. Though ordained a priest in 1703, according to his own account, within a year of being ordained Vivaldi no longer wished to celebrate mass because of physical complaints ("tightness of the chest") which pointed to angina pectoris, asthmatic bronchitis, or a nervous disorder. It is also possible that Vivaldi was simulating illness - there is a story that he sometimes left the altar in order to quickly jot down a musical idea in the sacristy.... In any event he had become a priest against his own will, perhaps because in his day training for the priesthood was often the only possible way for a poor family to obtain free schooling .

"Being a Priest is not my own wish~ free schooling? They treated me with respect,also my family I have no choice and no freedom to choose what I want "~Lucio
Though he wrote many fine and memorable concertos, such as the Four Seasons and the Opus 3 for example, he also wrote many works which sound like five-finger exercises for students. And this is precisely what they were. Vivaldi was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Pietà. Often termed an "orphanage", this Ospedale was in fact a home for the female offspring of noblemen and their numerous dalliances with theirmistresses. The Ospedalewas thus well endowed by the "anonymous" fathers; its furnishings bordered on the opulent, the young ladies were well looked-after, and the musical standards among the highest in Venice. Many of Vivaldi's concerti were indeed exercises which he would play with his many talented pupils.

"Although teaching violin make me feel bore and haze but the "angeli" in Ospedale della Pieta gave me a lots of inspiration in my violino concerti also with the "angeli" brilliant technique~I can say that their music was came from Paradiso"there was one angelo, unforgetable Feodora~Lucio
Vivaldi's relationship with the Ospedale began right after his ordination in 1703, when he was named as violin teacher there. Until 1709, Vivaldi's appointment was renewed every year and again after 1711. Between 1709 and 1711 Vivaldi was not attached to the Ospedale. Perhaps in this period he was already working for the Teatro Sant' Angelo, an opera theater. He also remained active as a composer - in 1711 twelve concertos he had written were published in Amsterdam by the music publisher Estienne Roger under the title l'Estro armonico (Harmonic Inspiration).

"I worked in the Pietà from 1703 to 1718.In 1710,I was shock,I was dismissed,after the the board of directors of the Ospedale vote on me after a 7 against 6 vote.I became a free-lance musician in 1710.The Board ...until now I believed they were jealous, I am not only a violin teacher but also a composer!~Lucio
In 1713, Vivaldi was given a month's leave from the Ospedale della Pietà in order to stage his first opera, Ottone in villa, in Vicenza. In the 1713-4 season he was once again attached to the Teatro Sant' Angelo, where he produced an opera by the composer Giovanni Alberto Rostori (1692-1753).

"Being a priest,a violino teacher even the maestro de' concerti of Pietà is not my own wish~Lucio
As far as his theatrical activities were concerned, the end of 1716 was a high point for Vivaldi. In November, he managed to have the Ospedale della Pietà perform his first great oratorio, Juditha Triumphans devicta Holofernis barbaric. This work was an allegorical description of the victory of the Venetians (the Christians) over the Turks (the barbarians) in August 1716

"At that time was my chance to be a operatic composer~!
Before 1716,possibly 1703 I had my first publications: trio sonatas (probably 1703-5), violin sonatas (1709) and especially my 12 concertos L'estro armonico (1711) were issued in Amsterdam and widely circulated in northern Europe.Even Bach transcribed five concertos for keyboard, and many German composers imitated my style.Moreover there were further two sets of sonatas and seven more of concertos, including La stravaganza (1712).~Lucio~
At the end of 1717 Vivaldi moved to Mantua for two years in order to take up his post as Chamber Capellmeister at the court of Landgrave Philips van Hessen-Darmstadt. His task there was to provide operas, cantatas, and perhaps concert music, too. His opera Armida had already been performed earlier in Mantua and in 1719 Teuzzone and Tito Manlio followed. On the score of the latter are the words: "music by Vivaldi, made in 5 days." Furthermore, in 1720 La Conduce o siano Li veri amici was performed

"Not two is three years, I have written several operas including three acts opera "Tito Manlio",and my two lost work,the pastoral drama "La Silvia" and the oratorio L'adorazione delli tre re magi al bambino Gesù. This was all my false for being lost, if I didn't go to Wien in 1740, I no need to sell off sizeable numbers of my work.
I am the destroyer of my work~ I hereby to confess myself completely~~Lucio~
In 172O Vivaldi returned to Venice where he again staged new operas written by himself in the Teatro Sant' Angelo. In Mantua he had made the acquaintance of the singer Anna Giraud (or Giro), and she had moved in to live with him. Vivaldi maintained that she was no more than a housekeeper and good friend, just like Anna's sister, Paolina, who also shared his house.

In 1722 was my "golden age " I introduced the new style of my opera in Rome where the new Pope Benedict XIII invited me to play for him.In 1725 I back to my home I written four opera at the same time I also met ....Anna the opera singer~~my opera singer~~Lucio~
In his Memoires, the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni gave the following portrait of Vivaldi and Giraud: "This priest, an excellent violinist but a mediocre composer, has trained Miss Giraud to be a singer. She was young, born in Venice, but the daughter of a French wigmaker. She was not beautiful, though she was elegant, small in stature, with beautiful eyes and a fascinating mouth. She had a small voice, but many languages in which to harangue." Vivaldi stayed together with her until his death.
Is not true.....Anna....was the most beautiful singer ever had~~
Vivaldi also wrote works on commission from foreign rulers, such as the French king, Louis XV - the serenade La Sena festeggiante (Festival on the Seine), for example. This work cannot be dated precisely, but it was certainly written after 1720.
In Rome Vivaldi found a patron in the person of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great music lover, who earlier had been the patron of Arcangelo Corelli. And if we can believe Vivaldi himself, the Pope asked him to come and play the violin for him at a private audience.
Earlier, in the 1660's, musical life in Rome had been enormously stimulated by the presence of Christina of Sweden in the city. The "Pallas of the North," as she was called, abdicated from the Swedish throne in 1654. A few years later she moved to Rome and took up residence in the Palazzo Riario. There she organized musical events that were attended by composers such as Corelli and Scarlatti. Other composers, too, such as Geminiani and Handel worked in Rome for periods of time. Like them, Vivaldi profited from the favorable cultural climate in the city.
Despite his stay in Rome and other cities, Vivaldi remained in the service of the Ospedale della Pietà, which nominated him "Maestro di concerti." He was required only to send two concertos per month to Venice (transport costs were to the account of the client) for which he received a ducat per concerto. His presence was never required. He also remained director of the Teatro Sant' Angelo, as he did in the 1726, 7 and 8 seasons.

The Pietà paid me to write two concertos a month for the orchestra and to rehearse with them at least four times when I was in Venice. I have written 140 concertos for the Pietà's around 1723 and 1729.In 1723 I have written "Le quattro stagioni "(the Four Seasons)~were first published in 1725 in my collection of Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest of Harmony and Invention).
Is the countryside of Mantua gave me a lots of inspiration to write the four sets of concertos,as for the "Spring" I had borrowed the motifs from a Sinfonia in one of my opera ....the first act ...the "Il Giustinoin" I've written the opera at the same time~Lucio~
Between 1725 and 1728 some eight operas were premiered in Venice and Florence. Abbot Conti wrote of his contemporary, Vivaldi: "In less than three months Vivaldi has composed three operas, two for Venice and a third for Florence; the last has given something of a boost to the name of the theater of that city and he has earned a great deal of money."
During these years Vivaldi was also extremely active in the field of concertos. In 1725 the publication Il Cimento dell' Armenia e dell'invenzione (The trial of harmony and invention), opus 8, appeared in Amsterdam. This consisted of twelve concertos, seven of which were descriptive: The Four Seasons, Storm at Sea, Pleasure and The Hunt. Vivaldi transformed the tradition of descriptive music into a typically Italian musical style with its unmistakable timbre in which the strings play a major role.

All the concertos were in a standard 3~movement form-veloce-lento-veloce-this settings was my "concerto formula".I followed my own settings to compose almost 500 concertos~This was the main reason why I had written plenty of concertos in a short period of time.
These concertos were enormously successful, particularly in France. In the second half of the 18th century there even appeared some remarkable adaptations of the Spring concerto: Michel Corrette (1709-1795) based his motet Laudate Dominum de coelis of 1765 on this concerto and, in 1775, Jean-Jacques Rousseau reworked it into a version for solo flute. "Spring" was also a firm favorite of King Louis XV, who would order it to be performed at the most unexpected moments, and Vivaldi received various commissions for further compositions from the court at Versailles.
In 1730 Vivaldi, his father, and Anna Giraud traveled to Prague. In this music-loving city (half a century later Mozart would celebrate his first operatic triumphs there) Vivaldi met a Venetian opera company which between 1724 and 1734 staged some sixty operas in the theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck (for whom incidentally, Bach produced his Four Shorter Masses). In the 1730-1731 season, two new operas by Vivaldi were premiered there after the previous season had closed with his opera Farnace, a work the composer often used as his showpiece.
At the end of 1731 Vivaldi returned to Venice, but at the beginning of 1732 he left again for Mantua and Verona. In Mantua, Vivaldi's opera Semimmide was performed and in Verona, on the occasion of the opening of the new Teatro Filarmonico, La fida Ninfa, with a libretto by the Veronese poet and man of letters, Scipione Maffei, was staged.
After his stay in Prague, Vivaldi concentrated mainly on operas. No further collections of instrumental music were published. However Vivaldi continued to write instrumental music, although it was only to sell the manuscripts to private persons or to the Ospedale della Pietà, which after 1735 paid him a fixed honorarium of 100 ducats a year. In 1733 he met the English traveler, Edward Holdsworth, who had been commissioned to purchase a few of Vivaldi's compositions for the man of letters, Charles Jennens, author of texts for oratorios by Handel. Holdsworth wrote to Jennens: "I spoke with your friend Vivaldi today. He told me that he had decided to publish no more concertos because otherwise he can no longer sell his handwritten compositions. He earns more with these, he said, and since he charges one guinea per piece, that must be true if he finds a goodly number of buyers."
My instrumental music manuscript can be divided into two long periods of around ten years.The first, from 1720 to 1729,still connected with the Pieta, as mentioned already.The second period, from about 1730 until departure for Vienna in May 1740.At that time in order to catch up the "new" fashionable Style Galant, I had changed my style. 1735 I returned to the Pieta as maestro de' concerti, composing concertos for strings,cello,oboe,transverse flute,and for two violins,as well as most of as most of the bassoon concertos,I written a great many concertos other than the strings, just because the new post required me to do so.
In 1738 Vivaldi was in Amsterdam where he conducted a festive opening concert for the 100th Anniversary of the Schouwburg Theater. Returning to Venice, which was at that time suffering a severe economic downturn, he resigned from the Ospedale in 1740, planning to move to Vienna under the patronage of his admirer Charles VI. His stay in Vienna was to be shortlived however, for he died on July 28th 1741 "of internal fire" (probably the asthmatic bronchitis from which he suffered all his life) and, like Mozart fifty years later, received a modest burial. Anna Giraud returned to Venice, where she died in 1750.
Cecilia Bartoli ~ Agitata da due venti