Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi
  • Born: 4 March 1678, Venice
  • Died: 27/28 July 1741, Vienna

Vivaldi is best known for the Four Seasons. He was, though, more than just an instrumental composer; he was a priest (his severe asthma forced him to leave the priesthood); violin teacher; pizza inspiration; and one of the most prolific opera composers of his day. By his reckoning, he composed 94 operas, but musicologists have only identified 49; of these, a mere 22 survive, most found in the Library of Turin.

Vivaldi’s first known opera, Ottone in villa, was performed in Vicenza in 1713; a string of successes in his native Venice, Rome, Mantua (in Hapsburg employ), Florence, and Milan followed. His last operas, in the late 1730s, being unsuccessful, Vivaldi went to Vienna in 1741, possibly to supervise the performance of one of his works. He died there a month later.

  • Operas

    1. Ottone in villa (1713)
    2. Orlando finto pazzo (1714)
    3. Orlando furioso (1714)
    4. Nerone fatto Cesare (1715; pasticcio with other hands)
    5. La costanza trionfante degl’amori e de gl’odii (1716; reworked as Artabano, re dei Parti, 1718, and Doriclea, 1732)
    6. Arsilda, regina di Ponto (1716)
    7. L’incoronazione di Dario (1717) ****
    8. Tieteberga (1717)
    9. Il vinto trionfante del vincitore (1717; pasticcio)
    10. Armida al campo d’Egitto (1718; reworked as Gl’inganni per vendetta, 1720)
    11. Scanderbeg (1718)
    12. Teuzzone (1718)
    13. Tito Manlio (1719)
    14. La Candace, o siano Li veri amici (1720)
    15. La verità in cimento (1720) ****
    16. Filippo re di Macedonia (1720; pasticcio)
    17. Silvia (1721)
    18. Ercole su’l Termodonte (1723)
    19. Giustino (1724)
    20. La virtù trionfante dell’amore, e dell’odio, overo Il Tigrane (1724; pasticcio; only Act II by Vivaldi)
    21. L’inganno trionfante in amore (1725)
    22. Cunegonda (1726)
    23. La fede tradita e vendicata (1726)
    24. La tiranna castigata (1726)
    25. Dorilla in Tempe (1726; pasticcio)
    26. Ipermestra (1727)
    27. Farnace (1727) ******
    28. Siroe, re di Persia (1727)
    29. Orlando furioso (1727) *****
    30. Rosilena ed Oronta (1728)
    31. Atenaide (1728)
    32. Argippo (1730)
    33. Alvida regina de’ Goti (1731; only some arias by Vivaldi, probably from other operas)
    34. Semiramide (1731)
    35. La fida ninfa (1732)
    36. Motezuma (1733)
    37. L’Olimpiade (1734)
    38. L’Adelaide (1735)
    39. Il Tamerlano (Il Bajazet) (1735; pasticcio)
    40. Griselda (1735)
    41. Aristide (1735)
    42. Ginevra principessa di Scozia (1736)
    43. Catone in Utica (1737)
    44. L’oracolo in Messenia (1737)
    45. Il giorno felice (1737)
    46. Rosmira (1738; pasticcio arranged by Vivaldi of music by Hasse, Pergolesi, Handel, &c)
    47. Feraspe (1739)