Antonio Vivaldi
4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741
Antonio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, and Catholic priest, nicknamed 'il Prete Rosso' (the Red Priest) for his hair. Working for decades at the Ospedale della Pietà orphanage in Venice, he composed hundreds of concertos, sacred works, and operas, including The Four Seasons, and his concerto form profoundly influenced composers such as J.S. Bach.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Antonio Vivaldi.
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- Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) Overlapped 63 years →
- Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Overlapped 63 years →
- Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) Overlapped 60 years →
- Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) Overlapped 60 years →
- Vitus Bering (1681–1741) Overlapped 60 years →
Life events
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice, the son of a barber turned professional violinist at St Mark's Basilica, and was baptized immediately at home due to poor health.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, taught him the violin, and the two toured Venice performing together.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1703 he became maestro di violino at the Pietà, a Venetian home for orphaned girls famous for its musical training, an association he maintained on and off for most of his career.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgVivaldi was ordained in 1703 but soon ceased celebrating Mass, citing chronic chest ailments, likely a form of asthma.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThis set of twelve concertos, published in Amsterdam, spread his fame across Europe and was studied and transcribed by J.S. Bach.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis operatic debut took place in Vicenza in 1713, launching a career in which he claimed to have written dozens of operas.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFrom 1718 to 1720 he worked in Mantua for the Habsburg governor Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, composing operas and cantatas.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe four programmatic violin concertos depicting the seasons, published in Amsterdam in 1725, became his most celebrated work.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1740 Vivaldi left Venice for Vienna, hoping for support from Emperor Charles VI, but the emperor's death soon after left him without patronage or income.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgVivaldi died in Vienna and was given a simple burial; his music fell into obscurity until its major revival in the twentieth century.
Source: en.wikipedia.org