1. Vivaldi Pieta Philippe Jaroussky

The Ospedale della Pietà was a convent, orphanage, and music school in Venice. Like other Venetian ospedali, the Pietà was first established as a hospice for the needy. A group of Venetian nuns, called the Consorelle di Santa Maria dell’Umiltà, established this charitable institution for orphans and abandoned girls in the fourteenth century. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Pietà - along with the three other charitable Ospedali Grandi - was well known for its all-female musical ensembles that attracted tourists and patrons from around Europe.

Musical activity[edit]

It is true that Vivaldi had been dead for fourteen years when Tiepolo’s works of art were discovered in this church; however, in front of this painting we like to think of the music by “the red priest of Venice” adhering to the words of two illustrious scholars, which we report below together with a link to a. The program, with Vivaldi 's Stabat Mater, RV 621 (so often subordinated to Pergolesi 's swan song, but full of beauties of its own), is very carefully chosen. Beyond that is simply the fact that Jaroussky 's voice is equally beautiful in its lower ranges. And finally, is the program's unity of conception.

Infants could be left at the Pietà via the scaffetta, a window only large enough to admit infants. Not all infants were female, nor were they necessarily orphans. Through the seventeenth century all four of the surviving ospedali gained increasing attention through the performances of sacred music by their female musicians, known as figlie di coro. Formal rules for the training of figlie were carefully drafted and periodically revised.^[1] Many of these concerts were given for select audiences consisting of important visitors. The audience was separated from the performers by a metal grill, probably to hide the disfiguration of the girls. As the institution became celebrated, it sometimes received infants related (not always legitimately) to members of the nobility. In the later decades of the Venetian Republic, which collapsed in 1797, it also accepted adolescent music students - called figlie di spese - whose fees were paid by sponsoring foreign courts or dignitaries.^[2]

The Pietà produced many virtuose like Chiara della Pietà and at least two composers – Anna Bon and Vincenta Da Ponte. The life of successful figlie was much coveted. Some were given lavish gifts by admirers, and many were offered periods of vacation in villas on the Italian mainland. Most remained there their entire lives, though as the Venetian economy declined in the eighteenth century, some left to make (usually advantageous) marriages. In this instance, the institution provided a future bride with a small dowry.

Each Ospedali Grandi usually had an orchestra of at least thirty to forty elements, all females (La Pietà's orchestra counted up to sixty) and competed with each other by hiring the best musicians in the city, promoting high quality concerts, and through such activities provided countless commissions for violin and other instruments makers to provide for the maintenance and repair of such instruments. These artisans were named 'liuter del loco'.The office of 'liuter del loco' guaranteed a constant flow of income: curating the instruments of an entire orchestra was a burdensome activity which required the work of more than one person; instruments had to be picked up, continuously repaired because of breakage and ungluing from use, and sometimes instruments had to be built. The responsible violin maker also had to supply strings for the entire orchestra, keep an accounting book detailing all operations, and issue semi-annual or annual invoices. These invoices, or ‘policies’ as they were called at the time, were handwritten by the appointed violin maker and had to be approved by the 'maestre del coro' or the maestro di cappella – who would usually be granted a discount – before being paid by the hospital administration. These ‘policies’ are not only a precious source of information for the study of an author (luthier) and his work, but they are also a valid tool to gather more information on the musical practice of the 'sonadori' (players) of the time. There is also much information that can be gleaned from their organological study. For a reading of some of the most interesting invoices, we refer to the appendix of Pio^[3] book where some of them (the author has found and catalogued more than 110, totaling 400 pages) are listed in chronological order and cover the years from 1750 to 1810.

The composer Antonio Vivaldi was appointed a violin teacher in 1703 and served in various roles through 1715, and again from 1723 to 1740. Much of Vivaldi's sacred vocal and instrumental music was written for performance at the Pietà.^[4]The conservatory of the Pietà hospital was the only hospital to remain active until approximately 1830. All the other hospitals completely closed their musical activity during the first years of the nineteenth century. From an instrument inventory^[5] dated 1790 we learn that during that year the Pietà hospital had still “four violins with used bows, four cellos, seventeen violins, two marine trumpets (these may have been violini in tromba marina),^[6] six small violas, two viola d’amore, two mandolines, two lutes, one theorbo, four hunting horns with accessories, two psalteries with harmonic box, two cymbals, three flutes, two big cymbals with spinets, six spinets.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's account of 1770 conveys his impressions but has been over-generalized as a description of the institution over an entire century. After describing how the performers were hidden behind metal grilles, he related in his Confessions (1770):

I have not an idea of anything so voluptuous and affecting as this music; the richness of the art, the exquisite taste of the vocal part, the excellence of the voices, the justness of the execution, everything in these delightful concerts concurs to produce an impression which certainly is not the mode, but from which I am of opinion no heart is secure.

He goes on to describe meeting the musicians.^[7]

The original building (shown above) is currently a hotel-restaurant complex (the Metropole). The nearby church of the Pietà was completed in 1761, two decades after the death of Antonio Vivaldi. The facade of the church was only completed in the early 20th century. An early childhood education center is still housed in the rear of the building complex behind the church. Most of this complex was donated to the Ospedale in the 1720s, enabling it to expand its activities. Some of Vivaldi's premiere pupils, such as Anna Maria del Violino, were given individual rooms in these newly acquired buildings. It is possible that in the salon of one of them the famous concert for 'i conti del Nord', celebrated in a painting by Francesco Guardi,^[8] took place on January 22, 1782.^{[citation needed]} Guardi's painting is mistitled^{[citation needed]} 'The Dinner and Ball in the Teatro San Benedetto'.

Musicians who studied in the Ospedale[edit]

Composers who held posts at the Ospedale della Pietà[edit]

References in Fiction[edit]

• Vivaldi's Virgins, first published in 2007 and translated into 12 languages, is a novel by Barbara Quick set in the Ospedale della Pietà during the lifetime of Anna Maria della Pietà, one of Vivaldi's favorite students there. The novel was released as an audio title in December 2019.
• The Ospedale della Pieta is the main setting of Rosalind Laker's [pen name of Barbara Ovstedal] The Venetian Mask (1992)
• Corona, L. The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice. is a romanticized history of the women who were abandoned and studied in the Ospedale della Pietà.

References[edit]

1. ^Baldauf-Berdes, Jane (1993). Women Musicians of Venice: Musical Foundations, 1525-1855. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2. ^Porta, Giovanni (1 January 1995). Selected sacred music from the Ospedale della Pietà. A-R Editions, Inc. pp. 7–8. ISBN978-0-89579-318-8.
3. ^Stefano Pio book pp.322 – 403
4. ^Heller, Karl (1997). Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 51–54. ISBN978-1-57467-015-8.
5. ^Pio Stefano book
6. ^Chandler, Adrian; Recreating Vivaldi's violino in tromba marina; The Strad, 15 April 2015: https://www.thestrad.com/recreating-vivaldis-violino-in-tromba-marina/4526.article Retrieved 1 March 2021
7. ^'Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Wikiquote'. en.wikiquote.org. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
8. ^'Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)'. Retrieved 2016-12-15.

Bibliography[edit]

• Jane L. Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice. Musical Foundations, 1525–1855. Rev. ed. Oxford 1996; ISBN0-19-816604-4
• Fernyhough, Clare (12 February 2006). 'Revealed: Vivaldi's life with a whole orchestra of women'. Independent on Sunday (UK national title). p. 32. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
• André Romijn. Hidden Harmonies: The Secret Life of Antonio Vivaldi (2008); ISBN978-0-9554100-1-7
• Eleanor Selfridge-Field. A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660–1760 (2007); ISBN978-0-8047-4437-9
• E. Selfridge-Field. Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi, 3rd rev. edn., 1994; ISBN0-486-28151-5
• E. Selfridge-Field. Pallade Veneta: Writings on Music in Venetian Society, 1650–1750. Venice (1985); ISBN9788875520069
• Vivaldi's Violins: the Accounts of Ospedale della Pietà; retrieved 20 February 2006; archived from the original on 2006-12-05.
• Vanessa Tonelli. 'Women and music in the Venetian Ospedali.' Thesis. Michigan State University 2013.

External links[edit]

• 45°26′03″N12°20′41″E / 45.4341°N 12.3446°ECoordinates: 45°26′03″N12°20′41″E / 45.4341°N 12.3446°E

Vivaldi's Gloria is one of sacred music's most uplifting choral works - a piece of high drama and hidden performers

Some time ago, I eagerly began a holiday in Venice, desperate to follow in Vivaldi’s footsteps. Imagine my disappointment when I got to the famous orphanage turned music school where he worked - the Ospedale della Pieta - only to discover it had been turned into an hotel. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The Riva degli Schiavoni bordering the Canale di San Marco is now prime Venetian real estate, thronging with tourists and souvenir sellers. I hoped for better luck with the Ospedale’s church - the Santa Maria della Pieta - next door. But that was boarded up with graffiti scrawled over the double doors. I didn’t feel too let down, though, since the present church was built after Vivaldi’s death in 1741! It’s still known as Vivaldi’s church, and I’m told that it is now cleaned up, open for worship and home to some wonderful baroque concerts.

I wanted to imagine myself in the place where some of Vivaldi’s most glorious music was performed by the young women who were taken in as orphans by the Ospedale, one of four important Venetian orphanages which placed a special emphasis on teaching music. These ‘orphans’ were usually the illegitimate daughters of the city’s wealthy noblemen and their numerous mistresses, which explains the generous endowments that meant the girls were well cared for and given the best musical tuition available. Despite being ordained as a priest in 1703, Vivaldi was appointed the violin master at the Ospedale and his association with the music school lasted until 1740, by which time his reputation in Europe had been secured thanks largely to the wonderful performances of the girls he instructed.

The Gloria in D is probably one of his best known sacred works, but it also reflects Vivaldi’s other skill as an opera composer, which he regarded as a distraction from his day job at the Pieta. Venice in the early 18th century was the pleasure centre of Europe, and a visit to the opera was part of the court and social life of the city. Despite a licentious reputation, the opera houses were required to close for all important religious festivals and Saint’s Days. But Venetians and their visitors still wanted to be entertained. Vivaldi’s all-women orchestras and choirs were legendary sensations, but the girls needed to be protected from noblemen and travellers to the city. To keep them sheltered from the corruption and decadence of the visiting public, the girls sang from the upper galleries of the church, hidden behind the patterened grills, which only added to the theatrical sense of drama matched by Vivaldi’s music. Those young men in Venice for a stop on the Grand Tour flocked to Vivaldi’s church to hear these mysterious women seen only in silhouette, but sounding like angels.

The Gloria itself is a joyful hymn of praise and worship divided into 12 relatively brief movements, ranging from festive brilliance to profound sadness. Yet it’s a mark of Vivaldi’s skill that the work overall maintains a cohesive structure. He prepares us from the very beginning, with the distinctive opening chorus, yet within minutes we’re deep in meditation with the second poignant movement ‘Et in terra pax hominibus’. From lilting soprano solos to solemn choral singing with duets and four part harmonies, this really is a masterclass in choral writing. But Vivaldi, always the great instrumentalist, doesn’t forget his musicians. There are opportunities for tender, lovely countermelodies played variously by the violin or the oboe.

Vivaldi Pieta Philippe Jaroussky

The finale brings the work together in a vivid but effective composite of all we’re heard before. Vivaldi has thrown in music which feels part concerto, part opera - but the effect is one of sacred music’s most uplifting choral works.