Music Lover's Almanac: February 24
On this date in 1709 – Vivaldi got the sack.
By the beginning of the 16th century, Venice’s status as Europe’s busiest mercantile port and an aristocratic bastion were firmly in its past. Just, no one told the aristocrats. Lavish sums were being spent to make the Republic’s operas, paintings and theatrical productions the most popular on the continent. By 1703, their influence had trickled into some of the city’s less reputable corners, allowing a sickly, red-haired priest, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678-1741), to be hired as violin master at a local girl’s orphanage, the Pio Ospedale della Pietà. Good timing: The Pietà became a forerunner of the modern music conservatory, and Vivaldi wrote for its pupils the majority of work from his staggering creative output—50+ operas, 500+ concertos (including the ever-popular Four Seasons), some 40 secular cantatas, several dozen sacred works, and sonatas enough to be lost and constantly rediscovered.
Despite his growing international reputation, Vivaldi’s job was never fully secure. Church fathers running the orphanage debated every year on whether to keep the virtuoso on board. Rarely unanimous, they voted him out of office in 1709. But being a genius has its rewards. Vivaldi was returned to his post in 1711 without a dissenting vote, and by 1716 he was appointed the institution’s music director. He continued to supply the school with compositions until 1729, by which time he commanded one of music’s most emulated voices.
How nifty is this fact? I never knew. It gives any of us who have been overlooked something to hang on to. Even Vivaldi was fired. There is hope for us all! :-)
