Antonio Vivaldi went to the monastery. At the age of 15, Antonio began studying to become a priest. He also took music lessons. He was ordained in 1703. Due to his red hair, Vivaldi was known by the locals as “il Prete Rosso,” or “the Red Priest.”. Antonio Vivaldi is a rising star in the music world. He's a brilliant composer and consummate performer. An ordained priest, known for his mane of flowing red hair, he is called 'Il Prete Rosso,' the Red priest. But Vivaldi's mind was focused more on music than delivering mass. Vivaldi Browser is a fast, private and secure browser that blocks ads and trackers. It puts you in control with unique features. Get Vivaldi for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android!
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi is considered to be one of the best Baroque composers of all time, with a great influence that spread throughout Europe over the course of his life. He was born in Venice, Italy on March 4th 1678 and went on to have an incredibly successful career during which he composed numerous violin concertos, sacred choral works and over 40 operas.
Vivaldi’s childhood
Vivaldi showed musical prowess right from the very beginning. His father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi taught his son how to play the violin and the pair toured Venice together. Although we can’t say for sure at what age Vivaldi began to learn how to play or compose, the extensive musical knowledge he’d obtained by the time he was 24 and being the son of the founder of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia (an association of musicians) suggests he must have been very young.
The president of Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia was Giovanni Legrenzi, an early Baroque composer and the maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica. It’s possible that he gave young Vivaldi his first composition lessons — Luxembourg scholar Walter Kolneder claims there’s evidence of Legrenzi’s style in Vivaldi’s early liturgical piece Laetatus sum (RV Anh 31) which he wrote when he was just 13 in 1691. However, it’s also likely that his father passed on his composition knowledge, since he composed the opera La Fedeltà sfortunata in 1689.
Health problems
Vivaldi suffered from bad health his whole life. One of his many problems was a constant tightness of the chest. Although this didn’t prevent him from playing the violin or composing music, it did make playing wind instruments impossible. By the time he was 15, Vivaldi moved away from music and began studying to become a priest. He was ordained at age 25, but just one year later was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass due to ill health. Within the church, he was given the nickname il Prete Rosso, meaning The Red Priest, which referred to the colour of his hair.
The Conservatorio dell'Ospedale della Pietà
Although he is most highly regarded for being a remarkable composer, Vivaldi was also an exceptional technical violinist. In the same year he was ordained, Vivaldi also became maestro di violino (master of violin) at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà orphanage in Venice.
The orphanage was one of five places in Vienna which gave abandoned and orphaned children shelter and an education. The boys learned a trade and left when they were 15, while the girls received a musical education and the most talented stayed on to become members of the orphanage’s highly-regarded choir and orchestra.
Vivaldi wrote the majority of his major works during the 30 years he worked at the orphanage. He also composed over 60 concertos, cantatas and sacred vocal music for the orphanage’s orchestra to play. This quickly resulted in the orphans gaining a great appreciation and esteem not only in Venice, but across Europe.
Each year the board of directors voted on which teachers to keep within the orphanage. In 1710 when he was 32, Vivaldi was asked to leave. But after just one year as a freelance musician, he was called back to the orphanage following an unanimous vote. In 1716 he was promoted to maestro de' concerti (music director).
Height of his career
In his heyday, Vivaldi was receiving commissions from European royals and nobles. In 1725 when he was 47, the French ambassador to Venice commissioned the serenata (cantata) Gloria e Imeneo (RV 687) to celebrate the marriage of Louis XV. The following year, La Sena festeggiante (RV 694) was also composed for the French embassy, in celebration of the birth of French royal princesses, Henriette and Louise Élisabeth.
Vivaldi Red Priest
In 1728, when he was 50, Vivaldi met Emperor Charles VI, to whom he had previously dedicated Opus 9, La cetra, in Trieste. The emperor adored Vivaldi’s music and is said to have talked to him more during that one meeting than he’d spoken to his ministers over the past two years. He gifted Vivaldi with the title of knight, as well as a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna.
The Kärntnertortheater in Vienna.
Vivaldi in Vienna
Accompanied by his father two years later, Vivaldi travelled to Vienna and Prague. There he presented his opera Farnace (RV 711) which garnered six revivals.
Sadly, like many composers of the time, Vivaldi faced great difficulties in his later life. Changes in music tastes meant his compositions were no longer held in such high esteem. To combat his, he sold off huge numbers of manuscripts at very cheap prices to pay for his move to Vienna. Although it’s not certain why Vivaldi wanted to move from Venice to Vienna, there’s a good chance that after his successful meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he wanted to become a composer in the imperial court.
It’s also possible that Vivaldi travelled to Vienna for the opportunity to stage operas, especially since he chose to live close to the Kärntnertortheater. Not long after Vivaldi arrived in Vienna, Emperor Charles VI died, leaving the composer without any steady income or royal protection.
Following this, Vivaldi became destitute and died in the house of a Viennese saddlemaker from an internal infection in July 1741, aged 63. The next day, a funeral was held at St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the composer was buried in a basic grave in a burial site owned by the public hospital fund. Contrary to many stories, young Joseph Haydn was not involved with the funeral or the burial, since there was no music performed at all.
Although the house in which he once lived has been been destroyed and built upon, there are memorial plaques where he was buried close to Karlskirche and his old home. You can also see the Vivaldi star in the Viennese Musikmeile and a Vivaldi monument at the Rooseveltplatz.
Vivaldi in Vienna today
You can still experience Vivaldi in Vienna today through the city’s classical concerts. You can witness one of his most famous pieces, Four Seasons, at St. Charles’ Church performed by 40 world-class musicians or at St. Stephen’s Cathedral performed by the Chamber Orchestra Vienna.
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Top 10 facts about Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th-century musician who’s become one of the most famous figures in European classical music.
He was born on March 4, 1678, in Venice, Italy. Vivaldi must have been destined for greatness by virtue of his ground-shaking birth (Literally), a large earthquake occurred in Venice on his birthday.
Antonio Vivaldi was ordained as a priest at birth although he later chose to follow his passion for music. He became a prolific composer who created hundreds of works, became renowned for his concertos in Baroque style, and was a highly influential innovator in form and pattern.
_IMGP1601.jpg "Vivaldi the red priest")
Some facts about this Italian composer
1. Antonio Vivaldi was mentored by his father
Young Antonio was taught to play the violin by his father, Giovanni Battista Vivaldi, a professional violinist who was also a barber. Antonio got to tour Venice with his father while playing the violin together.
Antonio Vivaldi Bio
Through his father and the tours, Vivaldi met and learned from some of the finest musicians and composers in Venice at the time. While his violin practice flourished, chronic shortness of breath barred him from mastering wind instruments.
2. Antonio Vivaldi went to the monastery
At the age of 15, Antonio began studying to become a priest. He also took music lessons. He was ordained in 1703.
Due to his red hair, Vivaldi was known by the locals as “il Prete Rosso,” or “the Red Priest.” His career in the clergy was short-lived due to health problems that prevented him from delivering mass and drove him to abandon the priesthood shortly after his ordination.
3. Antonio Vivaldi the Maestro di violin
After leaving the priesthood, Vivaldi went to Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage in Venice where he became the master of the violin.
He was regarded as an exceptional technical violinist as well as a famous composer. He began his career at the orphanage aged 25 and stayed for over three decades composing most of his major work.
The orphanages provided shelter and education to children who were abandoned, orphaned or came from poor families.
Vivaldi taught and mentored the children who began to gain appreciation and praises abroad.
4. Vivaldi had a strained relationship with his workmates
Despite his amazing work and excellent teaching skills that saw most of the children master their musical skills and even joining the Ospedale’s renowned orchestra and choir, his relationship with the board of directors of the Ospedale was often on the rocks.
The board would vote every year to decide whether to keep him as a teacher. They unanimously voted him out once, and only later realized the importance of his role after a year. The recalled him back.
During that time, Vivaldi practised as a freelance musician. He later became responsible for the entire musical activity o the institution when he was called back.
5. Vivaldi took on other jobs other than teaching
In addition to his regular employment, Vivaldi accepted a number of short-term positions funded by patrons in Mantua and Rome.
It was during his term in Mantua, from around 1717 to 1721, that he wrote his four-part masterpiece, The Four Seasons. He paired the pieces with four sonnets, which he may have written himself.
Vivaldi Spring
6. Antonio Vivaldi’s secret love life
Vivaldi took up a job offer as a Maestro di Cappella by prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt in Mantua. He produced several operas in the three years he was there.
It was during this time that he was introduced to Anna Tessieri Giro, who became his student and protégée. She later moved in with him and would accompany him on his many travels.
Speculations flew around whether the two were involved in a romantic relationship beyond their friendship.
Vivaldi was quick to deny the speculations in a letter he wrote to his patron Bentivogilo on November 16, 1737.
7. Vivaldi had tough Financial Times
Although he seemed to be a successful and famous musician, he faced financial difficulties like most of his fellow composers at the time.
In his later years, Vivaldi’s compositions were no longer held in high regard as they once were in Venice. This could be as a result of his changing musical tastes that outmoded.
To get himself out of the financial murk, Vivaldi opted to sell a huge number of his manuscripts at low prices to finance his move to Vienna.
8. Vivaldi spent time in Vienna
Vivaldi Priester
There is no clear reason as to why he moved to Vienna, but it is believed that after meeting with Emperor Charles VI, he aspired to take up a position as a composer in the imperial court.
Vivaldi The Red Priest 2009
Vivaldi also staged operas while in Vienna when he lived near Karntnertor theater.
His new life and career were cut short after Charles VI died, leaving him without royal protection and no steady source of income. Antonio Vivaldi sunk back into bankruptcy.
9. Vivaldi died poor
Photo by Wendy Scofield on Unsplash
Antonio Vivaldi died a pauper despite his fame. He died on July 28, 1741, aged 63 of an internal infection.
No music was played at his funeral, only the bells at St. Stephen’s Cathedral chimed to note his passing. He was buried in a simple grave in a public hospital cemetery.
A memorial plaque has been placed on the site that was once his home, which has since been destroyed.
10. Antonio Vivaldi’s life documented
His life has been featured in a 2005 movie, Vivaldi, A Prince of Venice. A radio play was also done for ABC Radio that same year.
Vivaldi As The Red Priest
The play was later adapted to a stage play titled The Angel and the Red Priest.
Vivaldi The Red Priest
Vivaldi’s genius skills and music continue to influence many musicians centuries later. His complete music catalogue was found in 1926 at a boarding school in Piedmont. The music of Vivaldi has been performed widely since World War II. The choral composition Gloria, re-introduced to the public at Casella’s Vivaldi Week, is particularly famous and is performed regularly at Christmas celebrations worldwide. His work includes nearly 500 concertos that have influenced subsequent composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach.