The life of the composer Vivaldi

in #music6 years ago (edited)

Everyone knows that Antonio Vivaldi is the author of the amazing cycle of annual violin concerts, but few are known to spend much of their life as a lecturer in an orphanage and literally overturn the fate of many abandoned children. Antonio Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678 in Venice. He is born in poor family and suffer from asthma throughout his live. For fear of his life, his mother gives a vow to God that her son will become a priest. Antonio's father is a barber, but he also earns his bread as a violinist He gives his son his first lessons, and they often go around the city to play in the homes of the rich and on the streets of Venice. Only 13-year-old Vivaldi wrote his first musical work. His talent is obvious, but the vow given at his birth must be respected. A 15-year-old he goes to study for a priest. Because of the red color of his hair, they start to call him "rufous abat". Poor health causes him to be free him from church rituals. He started working as a master violinist.

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In the orphanage he creates his most significant works and trains the orphans to play instruments. On the other hand, the management of the shelter does not look closely at the close relationship between the teacher and the children. It happens that for one year the board of the shelter does not vote favorably for Vivaldi and he is left without this job for a period of a year, then they probably realize his absence because they return him. In 1716, he was even promoted - he became the music director of the institution with an orchestra and a virgin choir. The cost of his return to Ospedale della Pieta, however, is high - they want him to write two concerts a month and rehears with the orchestra. In the year when he was released from work in 1711, Vivaldi wrote a work devoted to the Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando Medici, a patron of Scarlatti and Handel, but failed to get his favor and be funded by him. In Venice at that time, there were several opera theaters, and Vivaldi perfectly understands that what she has to write is an opera. He goes to this venture rather timidly. First he became an impresario at one of the theaters. His first opera, "Orlando finto pazzo", did not succeed. His second attempt was stopped by a scandal of censorship, because in the libretto of "Arsilda regina di Ponto" character... lesbian. Despite the failures of his first operas, Vivaldi is valuable as a composer and violinist. They offer him a captain in the yard of Prince Philip von Hessen-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua. In 1722 he received an invitation from Pope Benedict XIII to play for him in Rome. Vivaldi has already created other operas, but there is still no recognition in this genre. In 1725, he returned to Venice and for one year put four operas. It is during this period that he also creates the famous violin concerts "The Years of the Year". In 1932, he set up the opera "Consistency triumphs over love and hatred", which is successful and is invited to put it in Europe. The title of this opera sounds rather insightful compared to Vivaldi's difficulties as a composer. His modern opera style creates his enemies and critics. Some of them are literally ruthless to him. There is even a pamphlet written by a colleague, in which the mockery of Vivaldi is enhanced by a cartoon in which he is portrayed as an angel with a priest's hat and a violin in his hand - a clear sign to whom the pamphlet refers.

As a priest, Vivaldi has a very private life, but is known to have been fond of the young singer Ana Jiro, who is his student. In letters to friends, Vivaldi denied there was anything more than friendship between them, but everyone knew Anna was his protégé. In one period the composer is well received in the homes of many European nobles and royal peoples. The French ambassador in Venice ordered his canto as a gift for Louis XV's wedding. Vivaldi wrote the canto in honor of Emperor Carl VI, then was personally invited by NV. in Trieste. The emperor gave Vivaldi a knight title, a gold medal and an invitation to visit him in Vienna. However, the composer's life ended in financial difficulties. The composer is forced to sell many of his manuscripts for insignificant amounts. Some of them who were thought to have disappeared during the Napoleonic wars were discovered only in 1926. When Carl VI renders Vivaldi so high, the composer very much hopes the Emperor to invite him to the post of composer at his yard. To this end, he embarked on a trip to Vienna, but his hopes hit a stone - soon after his arrival, Carl VI dies. Remaining without protection and income, Vivaldi fell into extreme poverty and in 1741 died in the house of his girlfriend, a widow. He was buried in a simple grave in a plot of a public hospital. Later, his remains were moved to Vienna's Technical University. At the end of his life he writes a letter in which, with a sense of self-irony, he says his life returns to where he's gone, that he feels like "an orphan of God." He appreciates not his creativity as his greatest achievement, but that he has inspired self-esteem for many abandoned children and orphans to embark on life. In fact, the "The four seasons" cycle is a wonderful expression of his wisdom, because the very idea is an insight into the "seasons" and in human life that, unlike the natural cycle, never repeat, and the chance to express yourself is given to you once - in your real life. A rather advanced thinking about a priest who lived on the border between the 17th and the 18th century.

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Interesting article. I subscribed to you. Subscribe to me. Let's be friends

The four seasons, my favorite violin concert. Very interesting - reestemed 👍🏻
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