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Vivaldi’s Stage
ELLEN ROSAND
1
Some twenty of Vivaldi’s operas received their premieres at the Teatro S. Angelo
between 1714 and 1739. Vivaldi also helped manage and wrote operas for S. Moise, as
well as for performances outside Venice, especially in Mantua, where he produced seven
of his operas between 1718 and 1732. See Eric Cross, “Vivaldi,” Grove Dictionary of Opera
(London: Macmillan, 1992) 4, cc. 1026–28.
2
See Vivaldi’s letter of 2 January 1739 to Guido Bentivoglio; in Remo Giazotto, An-
tonio Vivaldi (Turin: RAI, 1973), 290–91. Cross, “Vivaldi,” lists fty-two, including several
pasticcios.
ro s a n d
that the composer staged his most signi cant and best-known works,
works belonging to the genre with which his name is virtually synony-
mous: the concerto.
Though few composers were equally committed to the two kinds of
institutions, the activities at the Ospedale and opera house were actu-
ally quite similar in a number of important respects. Both attracted in-
ternational audiences drawn to Venice by its reputation for lavish enter-
tainments. Both enjoyed the support of the government and patrician
patronage. And both therefore offered a context in which the particu-
larly strong connections between politics and art that characterized
Venetian culture were played out. More speci c links between the two
venues are offered by Vivaldi himself: his concertos, which may also
have played some role in the spectacle of the opera house, became the
central character in the drama enacted in the galleries of the Pietà.
Vivaldi was evidently in the habit of performing a concerto at some
point during the performances of his operas, a sure means of distin-
guishing such spectacles from those at competing theaters. Indeed,
visitors to the opera in Venice were repeatedly struck by these perfor-
mances. In a diary entry of 4 February 1715, the German traveler
Johann Friedrich Uffenbach reports having witnessed one of them at 9
S. Angelo:
Toward the end [of the opera] Vivaldi played an admirable accompa-
niment as a solo to which, as a conclusion, he appended a fantasia
that left me literally terrorized, because one like it was never played
nor ever will be played, since with the ngers [of his left hand] he
reached a point just a hair away from the bridge, so close that there
was no room for the bow; and he did this on all four strings, with fugal
passages and with incredible speed. He shocked everyone with this.
But I cannot say that it charmed me because it was not as pleasing to
hear as it was artfully played.3
The piece itself may very well have been a concerto (it was an accom-
panied solo) with an elaborate nal cadenza.4 On a second visit to
3
“. . . gegen das ende [of the opera at S. Angelo] spielte der vivaldi ein accompag-
nement solo, admirabel, voran er zu letzt eine phantasie anhing die mich recht er-
schrecket, denn dergleichen ohnmoglich so jemahls ist gespielt worden noch kann
gespiehlet werden, denn er kahm mit den Fingern nur einen strohhalm breit an den steg
dass der bogen keinen platz hatte, und das auf allen 4 saiten mit Fugen und einer ge-
schwindigkeit die unglaublich ist, er suprenierte damit jedermann, allein dass ich sagen
soll dass es mich charmirt das kan ich nicht tun weil es nicht so angenehm zu horen, als
es kunstlich gemacht war.” Quoted in Eberhard Preussner, Die musikalischen Reisen des
Herrn von Uffenbach Aus einem Reisetagebuch des Johann Friedrich A. von Uffenbach aus Frank-
furt a. M. 1712–1716 (Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter, 1949), 67. Uffenbach’s comments
on Venice may be found on pp. 63–72, especially 67–72.
4
Walter Kolneder suspects that this might have been the concerto in D major RV
212, because the cadenza of the last movement displays most of the extraordinary effects
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
8
Their full names are Santa Maria della Visitazione o della Pietà, Gesu Salvatore
degli Incurabili, Santa Maria dei Derelitti detto anche Ospedaletto, and San Lazzaro e dei
Mendicanti. See, inter alia, Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 31.
9
Michael Talbot (“Sacred Music at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice in the Time
of Handel,” Händel Jahrbuch XLVI [2000], 125–56; 127) distinguishes between foundlings
at the Pietà and orphans and waifs, who were accommodated elsewhere. Among the most
recent studies of music at the ospedali are Berthold Over, Per la Gloria di Dio: Solistische
Kirchenmusik an den venezianischen Ospedali im 18. Jahrhundert (Bonn: Orpheus-Verlag,
1998); Marinella Laini, Vita musicale a Venezia durante la Repubblica. Istituzioni e mecenatismo
(Venice: Stamperia di Venezia, 1993); Jane Baldauf-Berdes, Women’s Musicians of Venice:
Musical Foundations, 1525–1855 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993); and Bernard Aikema
and Dulcia Meijers, Nel regno dei poveri. Arte e storia dei grandi ospedali veneziani in età mo-
derna 1474–1797 (Venice: Arsenale, 1989). Earlier studies fundamental to this topic in-
clude Denis Arnold, “Orphans and Ladies, the Venetian Conservatories (1680–1790),”
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association LXXXIX (1962–63), 31–48; idem, “Instruments
and Instrumental Teaching in the Early Italian Conservatories,” The Galpin Society Journal
XVIII (1965), 72–81; Giuseppe Ellero, J. Scarpa, and C. Paolucci, eds., Arte e musica al-
l’Ospedaletto: schede d’archivio sull’attività musicale degli ospedali dei Derelitti e dei Mendicanti di
Venezia (secc. XVI–XVII) (Venice: Stamperia di Venezia, 1978); Giancarlo Rostirolla, “L’or-
ganizzazione musicale nell’ospedale veneziano della Pietà all’epoca di Vivaldi,” Nuova ri-
vista musicale italiana XIII (1979), 168–95; and M. V. Constable, “The Venetian ‘Figlie del
coro’: Their Environment and Achievement,” Music and Letters LXIII (1982), 181–212;
and Denis Arnold, “Music at the Ospedali,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association CXIII
(1988), 156–67.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
10
“. . . grande è in tutto l’anno il concorso de’ Forastieri, non essendovi alcun per-
sonaggio cospicuo, che giunto in Vinegia, sen parta senza aver onorato col suo intervento
anche questo Pio luogo [in addition to the other ospedali].” Giovanni Battista Albrizzi,
Forastiero illuminato. Intorno le cose più rare e curiose antiche e moderne della citta di Venezia e del-
l’isole circonvicine (Venice, 1740). The reference here is to the Incurabili: quoted from the
edition of 1796 (Venice: Francesco Tosi), 254–55.
11
The Visitation at the Pietà, the feast of S. Lorenzo at the Mendicanti. The four os-
pedali apparently alternated in presenting afternoon musical events on the four Sundays
of each month (Berdes, Women Musicians of Venice, 132). It was the Mendicanti’s turn on
the 4th Sunday, whereas the second was reserved for the Derelitti. Over, Per la Gloria di
Dio, 41–59, examines the feast-calendars of the four ospedali, which indicate the various
occasions on which music was called for, though not speci cally instrumental music.
Much of Over’s data comes from the 1712 edition of Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, Guida
de’ forestiere, initially published in 1697, and followed by nearly forty subsequent, often
ro s a n d
updated editions, which contains detailed information on services with music at all the
ospedali. See Talbot, “Sacred Music,” 136–37.
12
This was the case in 1740, for the visit of Friederich Cristian of Poland, Electoral
Prince of Saxony, documented in Giazotto, Vivaldi, 306–7. See also Eleanor Selfridge-
Field, Pallade veneta (Venice: Fondazione Levi, 1985), 312, n. 1. On the music for this
visit, see below, n. 28.
13
“La musica nelle chiese dei quattro Ospedali, cioè alla Pietà, ai Mendicante, al-
l’Ospedaletto e agli Incurabili non si tralascia volentieri di sentirla. La si fa tutti i sabati,
domeniche e giorni di festa; incomincia alle quattro circa del pomereggio e dura na a
poco dopo le sei. In questi quattro ospedali vengono mantenute a spese della Republica
persone povere e deboli di salute, come pure bambine povere a trovatelle, e queste ul-
time vengono educate al timor di Dio, a leggere, a scrivere e sopratutto nella musica per
mezzo di insegnanti di canto appositamente assunte, ed imparano anche a lare e a cu-
cire. Fra questi l’ospedale della Pietà è ora certamente il più importante; qui sono assi-
stite ed educate circa novecento fanciulle, tutte orfanelle, fatta eccezione per quelle che
sono mandate lì come pensionanti dalle famiglie povere. Queste fanciulle [. . .] vengono
educate nelle materie che si sono descritte più sopra, ed è straordinario vedere come
molte di esse eccellano non solo nella musica vocale ma anche in quella strumentale, e
suonino da maestro il violino, il violoncello, l’organo, la tiorba, e persino l’oboe ed il
auto.” Joachim Christoph Nemeitz, Nachlese besonderer Nachrichten von Italien (Leipzig:
Gleditsch, 1726), 97, entry of 1721. Italian text from Venezia Vivaldi, exhibition catalogue
(Venice: Al eri, 1978), 64.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
What distinguishes the Pietà from the other ospedali is that on solemn
feast days, they usually perform an instrumental concert [un concerto
di stromenti], mostly woodwinds, which is truly admirable. It is com-
posed of violins, violette, trombe marine, corni da caccia, oboe, ute,
recorder, timpani and a harp, which from time to time plays alone so
delicately and so consonantly with the other instruments, that one
cannot hope to hear anything of this kind either more harmonious or
more perfect.15
14
“Celui des quatre hôpitaux où je vais le plus souvent, et où je m’amuse le mieux,
et l’hôpital de la Piété; c’est aussi le premier pour la perfection des symphonies. . . . Aussi
chantent-elles comme des anges, et jouent du violon, de la ute, de l’orgue, du hautbois,
du violoncelle, du basson; bref, il n’y a si gros instruments qui puissent leur faire peur”
(Charles De Brosses, Lettres familières écrits d’Italie . . . en 1739 et 1740 [Paris: Poulet-Malassis
et De Broise, 1858] I, 144).
15
“Quello per altro in cui esso si distingue dagli altri, si è, che nei giorni solenni si
suol fare un concerto di stromenti la maggior parte da ato che realmente è ammirabile.
E composto di Violini, Violette, Trombe marine, Corni da caccia, Oboè, Traversiè, Flauti,
Timpani, e di un’ Arpa che di tratto in tratto suona a voce sola così delicatamente, ed è
così unisona cogli strumenti, che non si può sentire cosa nè più armoniosa, nè più per-
fetta in questo genere” (Albrizzi, Forastiero illuminato, 115).
16
See Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1975, 3rd ed., Dover, 1994), 43–44; idem, “Vivaldi’s Esoteric Instru-
ments,” Early Music 6 (1978), 332–38. Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 35, lists the fol-
lowing instruments as having been played at the Pietà: chalumeau, psaltery, viola
d’amore, viola all’inglese, mandolin, clarinet, along with the more common violin, cello,
recorder, transverse ute, oboe, bassoon, theorbo, and organ. For a comparison of the in-
strumental teaching available at the four ospedali, see Selfridge-Field, Pallade veneta, Ap-
pendix C: table of maestri and organists. Documents from all four institutions indicate
generic payments to teachers of solfeggio, maniera, strumenti, coro, and canti, but only
those from the Pietà include payments to individual instrumental teachers.
ro s a n d
21 Howard, “The Pietà,” 21, lists twelve instruments, but she may have miscounted.
22
For a color illustration of the Tiepolo fresco, see Keith Christiansen, ed., Giambat-
tista Tiepolo, 1696–1770 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996), g. 113.
23
Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 36, divides Vivaldi’s career at the Pietà into ve
periods: 1. 1 Sept 1703–24 Feb 1709 (“maestro di violino, viola all’inglese on 17 Aug.
1704); 2. 27 September 1711 (“maestro di violino”)–26 March 1716; 3. 24 May 1716
(“maestro de concerti”)–1717; 4. 2 July 1723 (to provide concertos 2 per month, in ab-
sentia) at least till 1729; 5. 5 Aug 1735 (“maestro de’ concerti”)–28 March 1738 (compo-
sition of concertos ‘per ogni genere d’instrumenti,” teaching, and rehearsals). The rele-
vant documents are listed in Michael Talbot, Vivaldi: Fonti e letteratura critica (Florence:
Olschki, 1991), 57–61. They are transcribed in Giazotto, Vivaldi, 351–83.
24
He was apparently responsible for providing sacred music when there was no of -
cial maestro de coro on the books. See Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 38.
ro s a n d
that he not charge for postage.2 5 And we do know that by 1729 the
number had already reached more than 140.26
Some of these can be more precisely identi ed by the fact that they
bear the names of the individual performers for whom they were in-
tended.27 Others bear rubrics indicating the occasion and date on
which they were performed at the Pietà. These include several to cele-
brate the Feast of S. Lorenzo and three concertos for multiple instru-
ments played in honor of the visit of the Electoral Prince of Saxony in
1740.2 8 It can probably be assumed, in any case, that the many concer-
tos for exotic instruments in solo or combination—such as lute,
chalumeau, ute, and mandolin—were designed to spotlight the odd
instrumentarium for which the Pietà was so well-known.29
25 “. . . per conservar il detto Choro nel credito sin’hora riportato si rende biso-
4. Concerto
As a genre, it would seem that the concerto was
ideally suited to the musical needs of the Pietà. Its essential structural
principle, that of alternation (or argument) between two contrasting
groups of instruments—either a solo or small group against a larger
one, or even two equal groups in opposition—offered the perfect occa-
sion for displaying the generally high level of ensemble playing as well
as the special talents of individual girls in solos. Indeed, visitors to the
Pietà were equally impressed by both. De Brosses, whom we have al-
ready heard from, commented on the “perfection of ensemble,” the
“tightness of execution.” Only at the Pietà, he adds, does one hear “that
sharpness of attack” so falsely vaunted at the Paris Opera. De Brosses
goes on to describe the playing of two particular violin soloists, Chia-
retta, “surely the best violinist in all of Italy [le premier violon d’Italie]
if Anna Maria [from the Ospedaletto] isn’t even better.” And, nally, he
notes the existence of a new kind of music, completely unknown in
France, which he describes as “grand concertos where there is no prin-
cipal violin.”30
18 Although it would be too much to conclude that Vivaldi owed his
passion for the concerto solely to his employment at the Pietà, there is
reason to think that his very rst composition for the Ospedale—and
(Florence: Olschki, 1988), 729–57. Various writers have suggested that the material for
the Pietà would have included the pieces in Vivaldi’s early publications as well as others in
manuscript that were composed before 1717 (when his name disappears from the Pietà
documents) and after 1723 (when his name reappears). It is likely that concertos in
which cadenzas are absent or merely indicated in shorthand were played by the com-
poser, while those in which they were fully written out were probably destined for his
pupils (Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 388). One can also imagine that many of the
concertos for odd instruments would have been designed for the Pietà, including at least
some of the bassoon concertos (a bassoon soloist is mentioned by De Brosses, Lettres
familières [letter 18 to M. de Blancey quoted above]); those for viola d’amore (dating
from around 1720, shortly after the instrument was rst played at the Pietà); those for vi-
oloncello, likewise after 1720, when two cello teachers were hired at the Pietà (Fertonani,
La musica strumentale, 405), mandolin, oboe, and trumpet, though probably not those for
hunting horn, an instrument that was not taught at the Pietà until 1747. On the variety of
instruments at the Pietà, see also Talbot, “Sacred Music,” 140.
30
De Brosses, Lettres familières, I, 144: “Quelle raideur d’exécution! C’est là seule-
ment qu’un entend ce premier coup d’archet, si faussement vanté à l’opéra de Paris. La
Chiarretta seroit sûrement le premier violon d’Italie, si l’Anna Maria des Hospitalettes
[sic!] ne la surpassoit encore. J’ai ete assez heureux pour entendre cette derniere. Qui est
si fantas[ti]que, qu’a peine joue-t-elle une fois en un an.” [De Brosse may have associated
Anna Maria with the wrong Ospedale. Or else there were two famous violinists with the
same name!] “Ils ont ici une espece de musique que nous ne connaissons point en
France. . . . Ce sont de grands concertos ou il n’y a point de violino principale. . . .” Vivaldi
composed 44 such works, concertos without soloists scored for four-part strings and con-
tinuo, which Talbot categorizes as “symphonic” concertos or “concerti a quattro” (Vivaldi,
127–28).
ro s a n d
31
Pallade veneta, entry for the week of 17–24 May 1704: “Domenica le glie del
choro della Pietà fecero sentire nel loro vespero una sinfonia d’istromenti ordinata per
ogn’angolo della chiesa di tant’armonia e con tale novita d’idee che resero estatiche le
meraviglie, e fecero supponere che tali componimenti venghino dal cielo che dagl’uo-
mini.” See Selfridge-Field, Pallade veneta, 80–81 and 251–52; also idem, “Music at the
Pietà before Vivaldi,” Early Music XIV (1986), 373–74. Selfridge-Field notes the coinci-
dence of the date with Vivaldi’s early tenure at the Pietà and wonders whether the de-
scription does not refer to one of the hybrid performance arrangements implied by the
diverse number of soloists in his earliest set of concertos, Op. 3 (1711), which, she says,
were issued with what once seemed super uous part-books.
32
Talbot, Vivaldi, 107–8 offers a nice discussion of the meaning of concerto in Vi-
valdi’s day, based on Mattheson.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
One of the singers of this hospital, whom I met shortly before my de-
parture from Venice, did me the favor of arranging a special perfor-
mance in the church, at the end of the usual music, of an extraordi-
narily beautiful concerto [grosso] with 20 violins plus organ, cello and
theorbo all with just girls, which was incomparably well performed,
and Anna Maria demonstrated in a remarkable way, especially in her
concertino violin part, that she can play with both a precise and deli-
cate st.33
33 “Es hat eine von den Cantoren dieses Hospitals, mit welcher ich bekannt war,
kurz von meiner Abreise von Venedig, mir zu Gefallen in der Kirchen zu Ende ihrer ordi-
nairen Music ein extraordinair schön concert von 20. Violinen nebst Orgel, Violoncello
und Tiorben, lauter Mädgens, machen lassen, welches unvergleichlich wohl executirt
wurde, und hat die Anna Maria demahls sonderlich in der partie von der Violino Con-
certino gewiesen, dass sie so wohl mit einer fertigen als delicaten Faust spielen könne”
(Nemeitz, Nachlese, 97. Italian text in Venezia Vivaldi, 64). The custom at the Pietà of a
sung service being followed by the playing of a concerto is con rmed by an anonymous
German correspondent of Johann Mattheson in 1725: “Wenn das Singen zu Ende ist,
wird a la pietà allezeit ein vortref iches Concert gespielt, welches immer so wohl ver-
dienet gohöret zu werden, als eine ganze Oper.” See Johann Mattheson, Critica musica, 2
vols. (Hamburg, 1722–26), ii, 288, quoted in Talbot, “Sacred Music,” 137–38.
34 The partbook, with her name on the cover, probably dating from 1726–27, con-
tains 31 concerti, 24 of them by Vivaldi. Though they were not all speci cally dedicated
to her, she obviously played them. Indeed, she probably premiered them. Further on this
partbook, see Michael Talbot, “A Vivaldi Discovery at the Conservatorio ‘Benedetto Mar-
cello’,” Informazioni e studi vivaldiani III (1982), 3–12; Faun Stacy Tanenbaum, “The Pietà
Partbooks and More Vivaldi,” Informazioni e studi vivaldiani VIII (1987), 8–11; idem, “The
Pietà Partbooks—Continued,” Informazioni e studi vivaldiani IX (1988), 5–12; and Ferto-
nani, La musica strumentale, 76–78. The pieces speci cally dedicated to Anna Maria in-
clude, for violin: RV 762 and 286 (the autograph is entitled Concerto per la solennità di S.
Lorenzo): for viola d’amore: 393, 397. The partbook provides the unique source for sev-
eral others: 772, 775, 771, 773, 774 (774 and 775 are scored for violin and organ), and
it provides unique variants for four other concertos that are preserved elsewhere (270a,
267a, 213a, 179a). The most elaborate violin parts, which give a true sense of her extra-
ordinary virtuosity, are those in 285, 581 and 582. Anna Maria, whose name appears in
the Pietà documents from 1712 on, became “maestra del violino” and “maestra de coro”
ro s a n d
Anna Maria plays the violin in a manner that transports her listeners
to paradise. Only angels play like that. One would search the entire
Venetian domain, nay, the entire globe, in vain, to nd a hand capable
of wielding the bow or touching the ngerboard as she does. I do not
exaggerate, but tell the truth as a gentleman: What professor plays the
harpsichord or violin, cello, viola d’amore, lute, theorbo, or mandolin
as well as she?35
in 1737. She died in 1782 at the age of 86. In addition to Nemeitz, she is mentioned by
Johann Gottfried Walther, in Musikalisches Lexicon oder musicalische Bibliothec (Leipzig:
Deer, 1732), 37. For a complete list of the pieces played by Anna Maria, see Jane Baldauf-
Berdes, “Anna Maria della Pietà: The Woman Musician of Venice Personi ed,” in Cecilia
Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, ed. Susan McClary, Susan C. Cook,
and Judith Tsou (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois, 1994), 134–55, n. 16. The pieces destined for
other performers include RV 222, 790, 792, 794, for “Chiara” or “Chiaretta,” and RV 787
and 788 for “Teresa.” 21
35
Annamaria “il violin suona in maniera/che chi l’ode imparadisa,/se pur la sul-
l’alta sfera/suonan gli Angeli in tal guisa./Brava in lei del par la mano/e del manico e
dell’arco/l’altra egual si cerca invano/Nello stato di San Marco./Anzi in tutto l’orbe
intero/non ha egual femmina o uomo/Non esagero, ed il vero/dico ben da galan-
tuomo/Come lei qual professore/suona cembalo o violino,/violoncel, viola d’amore,/
liuto, tiorba o mandolino?/Queste invero son virtù/Da eternar chi le possiede/pure in
lei vi è ancor di più/e son qui per farne fede./Aureo cor senza dopiezza,/ do, grato, ed
amoroso/bella assai, ma cui bellezza/non fà l’animo orgoglioso./Biondo crin, guancie di
rose/sen di neve, occhi di foco/nobil tratto e spiritose/le maniere in serio, e in gioco./
Ma non più perché potreste/del suo bel credermi amante/ed io ciò forse sareste/non as-
sai del ver distante./Ciò però sia per non detto/e torniam sul seminato/vien poi . . . vien
. . . sia maledetto . . ./chi vien mai. Son imbrogliato./Ah, si, si . . . Vien Bernardina” etc.
(“Sopra le putte della Pietà di coro” [I-Vmc, Cicogna Cod. 1178, cc. 206r–212v], stanzas
47–53). (It is worth noting that this poem devotes many more stanzas to Anna Maria than
to anyone else.) This version of the text was rst published in Francesco Degrada,
Un’inedita testimonianza settecentesca sull’Ospedale della Pietà (Turin: Edizioni del Convegno,
1965). It can also be found in Laini, Vita musicale, 101–05. Another version, “Sopra le
glie di coro dell’ospitale della Pietà del 1730,” was published in Bartolomeo Dotti, Satire
inedite, 2 vols. (Geneva, 1797), ii, 93–106. Despite its published date, Fertonani, La mu-
sica strumentale, 77, gives the late 1730s for the date of this poem. A number of the glie,
it seems, played more than one instrument. Chiaretta, Anna Maria’s successor, played the
violin, viola d’amore, and organ; she also sang and conducted (see Talbot, “Sacred Mu-
sic,” 141–42). Welcome new biographical information on the girls is available in Micky
White, “Biographical Notes on the ‘Figlie di Coro’ of the Pietà Contemporary with Vi-
valdi,” Informazioni e studi vivaldiani XXI (2000), 75–96.
36
Rousseau, for instance, in the Confessions (ca. 1743): “Sophie . . . she was
horrible. . . . Cattina . . . she was blind in one eye. Bettina . . . the smallpox had dis gured
her. Scarcely one was without some considerable blemish. . . . Ugliness does not exclude
charms, and I found some in them. . . . My way of looking at them changed so much that
I left nearly in love with all these ugly girls” (quoted in Marc Pincherle, Vivaldi [New York:
W. W. Norton, 1957], 20). For some later descriptions, see Laini, Vita musicale, 91–101.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
37
“Sopra le putte della Pietà di coro,” stanzas 64–69: “Vel dirò: rido da pazzo/
quando in chiesa osservo attento/or chi applaude e fa schiamazzo/or chi cade in sveni-
mento./A misura che ora questa/delle glie canta, or quella/veggio l’uno alzar la testa/e
star sso sempre in ella./Vedi un tale che di corde/cinger suole i anchi e il dorso/che
dal gusto il dito morde/e vi lascia impresso il morso./Chi s’accomoda gli occhiali/sopra
il naso e stassi attento,/ch’in bestemmie ereticali/dà, se alcun tosse un momento./Chi si
torce e chi la mano/tiene al sen, che par ferito/chi ad alcun che gli è lontano/fa a lodar
con gli occhi invito./Talor doppo una cadenza/fan sputando un gran rumore/e coi sputi
all’eccellenza/lode dan delle cantori.”
38
Edward Wright, Some Observations Made in Traveling through France, Italy . . . in the
Years 1720, 1721, and 1722 (London, 1730), i, 79.
39
Pincherle, Vivaldi, 20.
ro s a n d
This was partly a matter of modesty, for although they were not
nuns, there were many rules prohibiting the girls from displaying them-
selves: rules of conduct and dress. For instance, they were forbidden to
leave the Ospedale without special dispensation.41 Social contacts, even
with family members, were strictly limited. No visitors were allowed on
the premises without speci c permission from the governors.42 And the
girls were prohibited from wearing jewelry or bright colors.43 But, of
course, such rules were made to be broken, and such prohibitions only
whetted the curiosity of visitors to the ospedali, stimulating a preoccu-
pation with the girls’ appearance.
With the performers barely visible, the music reached the audi-
ence’s ears as pure, disembodied sound; the bodies of the girls who
produced these marvelous sounds had to be imagined, but the act of 23
imagination was very much part of the theatrical effect. It is important
to emphasize that the impression made by Vivaldi’s concertos was al-
most exclusively aural—reinforced, undoubtedly, by the power of sug-
gestion, by the very idea that girls were producing these marvelous
sounds. The composer exploited this situation wonderfully with his
concertos for multiple, unusual instruments, in which not only the
technical abilities of the girls, but the esoteric instruments of the Pietà
40 Samuel Sharp, Letters from Italy, 2nd ed., 1767, 28; quoted in Denis Arnold, “Or-
solano fuori di Laguna, conoscendosi conveniente di dare qualche respiro alle gliole.”
(Doc. 37.)
42
Giazotto, Vivaldi, 349: 30 April 1723: “a nessuno sarà concesso di introdursi
“nelli Luochi ove abbitano le nostre glie” per ascoltar musica—anche nel caso di “so-
getti esteri”—se prima non si saranno debitamente avvertiti i governatori sopra il Coro
(doc. 65). Such permission was granted for the Prince of Modena and his entourage in
1723 (doc. 66), for the Borghese princes (doc. 69), for “dame e cavalieri” from the Mi-
lanese house of Trivulzio (doc. 72), and for the Contessa Grimaldi of Genoa (doc. 86),
and the Elector of Saxony (doc. 108).
43 See Laini, Vita musicale, 114, for rules from the Derelitti dating from the mid-
seventeenth century concerning the girls’ dress and behavior, including their promise
not to sing in the opera house after they left the ospedale. Presumably similar rules were
in effect at the Pietà. Of all the inmates, the girl musicians were the best cared-for. The
principal solo singers were given special treats such as extra food and garlic; when the
most talented were ill they received bonus rations of asses’ milk or extra rewood or were
sent to the country for a change of air.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
were on display. The revelation in brief solo passages of one rare speci-
men after another from the Pietà’s armory of instruments must have
surprised and delighted audiences.
Three such concerti (RV 540, 552, 558) were performed at a spe-
cial occasion already mentioned, the visit in 1740 of Friederich Chris-
tian, Elector of Saxony. One of them, RV 558, features paired recorders,
chalumeaux, theorbos, mandolins, violins in “tromba marina,” and a
cello.4 4 It is characteristic of these pieces that the contrast within the ri-
tornello movements is primarily one of timbre or sonority rather than
musical material. This suggests that even Vivaldi’s choice of musical ma-
terial for his concertos, in particular, his exploitation of color as an ele-
ment of form, may be linked to the invisibility of the performers for
whom they were written. Even the spatial dimension of the works (“or-
dinat[i] per ogn’angolo della chiesa”) was designed to create a theatri-
cal effect, to actively engage the ears of his audience.45
If the genre of the concerto was not actually born in the setting of
the Pietà, in Vivaldi’s hands it certainly underwent its most signi cant
development there. In all their magni cent variety, the concertos he
designed for the girls, and their performance at the Pietà, surely stimu-
24 lated the enormous demand from travelers to Venice for pieces of their
own.46 Indeed, it may even be that the remarkable European success
of these works, which began in 1711 with the publication of Op. 3 in
Amsterdam, was inspired by what one modern writer has termed “the
particular charms of the famed performance venue” that was the Os-
pedale della Pietà.4 7
44
The “tromba marina” was a form of bowed monochord that produced a buzzing
sound on account of the vibrations of its bridge. Violins had to be altered, of course, in
order to imitate those sounds. See Selfridge-Field, “Vivaldi’s Esoteric Instruments,” 335–
36; Michael Talbot, “Vivaldi e lo chalumeau,” Rivista italiana di musicologia XV (1980),
153–81; a description of the unusual orchestration of these pieces is provided in L’Adria
festosa. Notizie storiche . . . del soggiorno di S.A.R. ed Elettorale Federico Cristiano . . . Ove si spie-
gano tutte le Funzioni Pubbliche e Private fatte a divertimento di S.A.R. l’Anno 1740. Come pure li
3 Componimenti in Musica delle Figlie dei 3 Pii Luoghi Pietà, Mendicanti, e Incurabili (Venice:
Occhi, 1740), referred to in Laini, Vita musicale, 105, n. 9.
45
The expression comes from a description of one of Vivaldi’s rst works at the
Pietà. Cf. above, n. 31.
46
Among such visitors were the aforementioned Uffenbach, who commissioned
concertos from the composer on 6 March 1715, receiving ten of them three days later
(Preussner, Die musikalischen Reisen, 71); and the German violinist Johann Georg Pisendel,
who studied with Vivaldi during 1716–17, to whom Vivaldi dedicated ve sonatas and six
concertos, and who brought some forty Vivaldi manuscripts back to Dresden, where they
have remained. A number of other musicians came to Venice not to buy concertos but to
study violin or composition with the maestro: Johann David Heinichen, Gottfried Hein-
rich Stolzel, and Daniel Gottlob Treu. See Fertonani, La musica strumentale, 52–53.
47
Laurence Dreyfus, Bach and the Patterns of Invention (Cambridge: Harvard, 1996),
43. Dreyfus wonders more speci cally “whether the rush of excitement about Vivaldi in
ro s a n d
5. Scherzi di fantasia
How many concertos did Vivaldi actually write?
Tradition has handed down the number 600—which can probably be
traced to a comment attributed to either Igor Stravinsky or Luigi Dal-
lapiccola, namely, that Vivaldi did not write 600 concertos but one con-
certo 600 times:48 something of an exaggeration on all counts. The
number is certainly wrong, though not by much—the most recent cata-
logue of his works lists some 472 concertos. But as anyone who has ever
tried to teach a class on the typical Vivaldi concerto discovers, sooner or
later, there is no such thing. Each one of his concertos is frustratingly,
surprisingly, intriguingly, exasperatingly different.
As we have seen, by virtue of their function at the Pietà, at least,
Vivaldi’s concertos were designed to feature a spectacular variety of in-
struments and textures—single soloists, multiple soloists, solo groups—
and that variety is compounded by variety of formal structure. Although
most of the concertos open with a fast movement in ritornello form,
the shape of that form, in particular, the relationship between sound
bodies within it, is hardly standardized: the number and nature of alter-
nations, the length of individual sections, the extent of contrast be- 25
tween solo and tutti material, the degree of virtuosity in the solo part—
all these things varied tremendously.
The same variety also extends to the expressive character of these
works. Although the conventional three-movement format, with its two
fast movements surrounding a slow one, proposes a rather standardized
affective structure, an alternation of extroverted, positive expression
with more pensive, introverted internalized emotions, some movements
do their expressive work more effectively than others. They signify
through a set of conventional associations: fast tempo, major key, bril-
liant guration are associated with joy, exultation, victory; slow tempo,
minor key, harmonic dissonance, long lyrical lines, with sadness, loss,
lament.
But Vivaldi occasionally—and famously—moves beyond such vague
expressive categories to make his music more literally articulate, invok-
ing an extra-musical dimension through titles and/or associated texts.49
northern Europe was not connected in some way to a scarcely concealed titillation pro-
ceeding from well-circulated rumors of a cloistered orchestra of girls making exciting mu-
sic” (45).
48
Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Conversations with Igor Stravinsky (New York:
Doubleday, 1959), 84. See Pincherle, Vivaldi, 68.
49
Cesare Fertonani, Antonio Vivaldi: La simbologia musicale nei concerti a programma
(Pordenone: Studio testi, 1993) is a thorough and fascinating study of these works. More
than half of the contents of Op. 8 (1725) bear such titles. This may suggest some particu-
lar interest on the part of the dedicatee, the Bohemian Count Wenceslas, of Morzin, or,
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
more likely, of the publisher La Cène, of Amsterdam. For the dedicatory letter, see Paul
Everett, Vivaldi. The Four Seasons and Other Concertos, Op. 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1991), 8–9. It is possible that many of the fty-odd concertos with extra-
musical implications were written for the Roman Cardinal Ottoboni, well-known for his
patronage of Corelli, Scarlatti, and Handel in the early years of the 18th century and, es-
pecially, for his leadership of the Arcadian Academy during this period. See Michael Tal-
bot, “Vivaldi and Rome: Observations and Hypotheses,” Journal of the Royal Musical
Association CXIII (1988), 28–46.
50
What Fertonani calls the “repertorio ornithologico,” namely trills, repetitions of
single notes or small intervals, absence of accompaniment (Fertonani, La simbologia,
126).
51
In addition to Fertonani, La simbologia, passim, see Luca Zoppelli, “Tempeste e
Stravaganze: fattori estetici e recettivi in margine alla datazione dei concerti ‘a pro-
gramma’,” in Nuovi studi vivaldiani. Edizione e cronologia critica delle opere, ed. Alberto Fanna
and Giovanni Morelli (Florence: Olschki, 1988), 801–10.
52
For speculation as to whether the sonnets were written before or after the concer-
tos, and by whom, see Everitt, The Four Seasons, 67–70 and especially Fertonani, La sim-
bologia, 57–63.
ro s a n d
dog (“Il cane che grida”) is juxtaposed against the murmur of the
fronds and plants (“Mormorio di frondi e piante”), coinciding with the
letter F and lines 9–11 of the sonnet.
With three different ways of marking, Vivaldi makes sure that the
details of his musical narrative will be clear. But to whom? To those
who could see the score: the dedicatee of the volume in which these
works were published, and perhaps the performers—though the spe-
ci c rubrics and poetic lines were not included in the original manu-
script parts for these concertos. Even if the audience had been pro-
vided with the texts of the sonnets, it would have been dif cult for
them to follow the precise evolution of Vivaldi’s plot. The most he
could hope for from his listeners would be a general attentiveness to
the overall drama of the kind portrayed in his other programmatic
works. Though the Seasons represents a unique monument in Vivaldi’s
oeuvre, it is worth considering the vocabulary of meaningful gestures
developed in its four concertos as a key to interpreting other works as
well, even those lacking titles.
With all of the formal and expressive variety displayed in these
works, it is dif cult to agree with the claim, however ironically in-
tended, that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 600 times. And yet, that 27
quip does contain a grain of truth. It acknowledges something impor-
tant—and distinctive—about Vivaldi as an artist: his facility, a facility
that is nothing short of astonishing.
His contemporaries marveled at his rapidity of execution, one of
them noting that he could compose a concerto in all its parts more
quickly than a copyist could write them out.53 And he is reported to
have ful lled private commissions for multiple concertos in record
time, sometimes within a matter of hours.54 This velocity is con rmed
by his autograph manuscripts, which indicate that he wrote his concer-
tos straight through to the end, sometimes in a single sitting. Even the
remarkable variety in his treatment of ritornellos subsequent to the rst
has been ascribed to his compositional frenzy, his disinclination to look
back at what he’d already written, preferring to rely on memory and
continuous inspiration. And the solo episodes, too, give the impression
of being devised on the spot, emerging almost instantaneously from a
pool of boundless creative energy.55 Such inventive virtuosity belonged
53
De Brosses, Lettres, I, 143: “c’est un vecchio, qui a une furie de composition
prodigieuse. Je l’ai oui se faire fort de composer un concerto, avec toutes ses parties, plus
promptement qu’un copiste ne le pourroit copier.”
54 Ten in three days, according to Uffenbach (see above, n. 46).
55
See Peter Ryom, Les Manuscrits de Vivaldi (Copenhagen: Antonio Vivaldi Archives,
1977), 27–28; also Marc Pincherle, Antonio Vivaldi e la musique instrumentale, 2 vols. (Paris:
Floury, 1948), 34 and Walter Kolneder, Antonio Vivaldi: His Life and Work, trans. Bill Hop-
kins (London: Faber and Faber, 1970), 79–85.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
56 Opere del Conte Algarotti . . . , 9 vols. (Livorno, 1764–65), 8: 379–80. Letter from
Algarotti to Count Heinrich von Brühl (1743): “gli ornamenti e le espressioni nasce-
ranno agevolmente dalla feconda fantasia,” quoted in Adriano Mariuz, “Giambattista
Tiepolo: Painting’s True Magician,” in Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770), ed. Keith Chris-
tiansen (NY: Abrams, 1997), 8, n. 25.
ro s a n d
57
A number of such publications date from the early 17th century. “Capricci” in
this context referred not to any particular formal genre per se but to the freedom of mu-
sical treatment, the willful departure from rules of counterpoint, perhaps for the purpose
of conveying a particular mood. The Diversi capricci of Ascanio Mayonne (1603, 1609) are
characterized by their deliberate departure from the rules of counterpoint. In Giovanni
Maria Trabaci’s Ricercate, & altre varij Capricci (1615), readers are urged to pay attention
to the spirit of the music. The term was often applied in violin music and became associ-
ated with music of a virtuoso character. For an overview, see Erich Schwandt, “Capriccio,”
The New Grove (London: Macmillan, 1980), III, 758–59.
58
For these series, see H. Diane Russell, Rare Etchings by Giovanni Battista and
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1972). See also Keith
Christiansen, “The Fiery Poetic Fantasy of Giambattista Tiepolo,” in Giambattista Tiepolo,
275–91, and idem, “Tiepolo, Theater, and the Notion of Theatricality,” Art Bulletin
LXXXI (1999), 665–92.
t h e j o u r n a l o f m u s ic o lo g y
Pieta avanti Sua Altezza Reale Il Serenissimo Federico Cristiano Principe Reale
di Polonia et Elettorale di Sassonia, Musica di D. Antonio Vivaldi Maestro de
Concerti dell’Ospitale Sudetto. In Venezia nell’anno 1740. Indeed, the girls
invisibly performing their miracles on the stage of the Pietà were the
mask projecting Vivaldi’s creative persona; they effectively established
his image as the creator of independent instrumental music on the
larger stage of Europe.
Yale University
30