Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was one of the leading musicians of the Baroque period. He was a classical composer and musician. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy to Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio. He was the oldest of five children. Giovanni was a barber who later became a professional violinist. It was Antonio’s father who taught him to play the violin and together they toured Venice and were even noted as one of Venice’s main tourist attractions. When Vivaldi was around 14 or 15 he began the study of priesthood; in the 1600s, this was a common way for a poor family to get a free education for their child. Vivaldi was ordained on March 23, 1703 at the age of 25. He was known as the ‘Red Priest’ because of his red hair. Vivaldi worked at an orphanage which was called the Ospedale della Pieta (Hospice of Mercy) as the maestro di violin This was an all-girls orphanage, which was for the illegitimate daughters of Venice’s noblemen and the school was dedicated to the education and care of young women. The musical standards at Ospedale were among the highest in Venice and Vivaldi served as the music director. At Ospedale, every month he would write two concerti for the girls’ choir to perform, these accounted for the large variety of the music Vivaldi wrote. These concerti were often quite difficult, and the girls of the Ospedale choir must have possessed a great amount of talent to perform them. Several of Vivaldi’s students made names for themselves after graduating, with this, Ospedale’s fame grew. This growth of fame brought about the upper class to begin sending their daughters to the school with hopes of making names for their daughters as well. Ospedale reached the height of its fame and success under the direction of Vivaldi (Blom, 26). Vivaldi spent almost all of his life at the Ospedale, leaving only for brief periods to travel, and with the request of his leave. During one of Vivaldi’s trips, he stayed with Prince Phillip of Hesse-Darmstadt as his Maestro di Cappella da Camera. Spending two years with the Prince from 1718-1720, he wrote music for festivals and other events at the palace. The music he wrote included several cantatas, instrumental pieces, and even a few operas (Vivaldi, Antonio, 407). Vivaldi left Prince Phillip in 1720 and traveled home to his birthplace, where he wrote and managed 18 operas in the Teatro Sant’ Angelo. Vivaldi liked this opera house because of its low ticket prices, and because it was known for letting the poor in for free when there was room. Antonio Vivaldi found companionship with a female singer, Anna Giraud. She lived with him, although Vivaldi claimed that she was just a housekeeper and friend. Miss Giraud was about 32 years younger than Vivaldi. The relationship was thought of as more of a student-teacher relationship than a romantic one. She performed in many of his operas from 1723 to 1748. Very little is known about the last ten years of Vivaldi’s life. He left his home in Venice and settled in Vienna in 1740. Antonio Vivaldi died July 28, 1741, a year after moving to Vienna after a lifelong struggle with asthma. He was buried the same day that he died in the hospital’s cemetery (Vivaldi, 408). Antonio Vivaldi was a classical composer and musician. He was one of the leading musicians of the Baroque period. He was a violin virtuoso. “Spring” was his most popular piece which was from The Seasons, which was published in 1725. This was a set of four violin concertos, each named after a season. These concertos were a great success for Vivaldi, particularly in France (Blom, 27). Vivaldi has composed over seven hundred pieces, ranging from sonatas and operas to concertos. He was the most influential composer in the creation of Baroque concerto. Antonio Vivaldi’s has been widely known and influential throughout Europe. His final triumph in his opera career was in 1735 with the writing of four new operas for the Venetian Carnival. Vivaldi’s two most successful operatic works, La constanza trionfante and Farnace, were performed in multiple revivals during his lifetime (Antonio Lucio). However, Vivaldi is most well-known for his concertos, not for his operas. “Spring” Concerto has been reworked by Michel Corrette and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was also favored by King Louis XV, who would randomly request it to be performed. More recently, “Spring” Concerto has become a staple at Starbucks, as it played so often there and is in the genre of “classical pop” (Wright 80). More than 200 professional recordings have been made of The Seasons. The choral composition Gloria has been re-introduced and has become famous, it is performed regularly at Christmas celebrations (Antonio Lucio). Subsequent composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach have been influenced by Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi’s music is now performed and recorded world-wide by the finest orchestras and soloists (About Antonio). Vivaldi’s music was forgotten during the classical period and for about 200 years his name was barely mentioned. Since the mid 19th century, his music has gained in popularity and Vivaldi is regarded as one of the prime composers of all time. His music still lives on through his many of his musical works, including La Quattro Stagione (The Four Seasons), L’ Estro Armonico, La Stravaganza, Gloria, RV589, and Concerto for Mandonlin.

Works Cited
"About Antonio Vivaldi." Four Seasons Orchestra. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
"Antonio Lucio Vivaldi." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Blom, Eric. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vir-Z. Vol. IX. New York: St. Martin Press Inc. 1954.
"Vivaldi, Antonio." Britannica Micropedia. 1989 ed., vol. 12, 407-408.
Wright, Craig M. "Vivaldi and The Baroque Concerto." The Essential Listening to Music. Australia: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2013. 78-80. Print.