The Marcello family claimed ownership of the Teatro Sant'Angelo, and a long legal battle had been fought with the management for its restitution, without success. Entitled The Angel and the Red Priest, the play was later adapted for the stage and was performed at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. Like many composers of the time, Vivaldi faced financial difficulties in his later years. About 350 of these are for solo instrument and strings, of which 230 are for violin, the others being for bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola d'amore, recorder, lute, or mandolin. Despite this circumstance, he took his status as a secular priest seriously and even earned the reputation of a religious bigot. He brightened the formal and rhythmic structure of the concerto, in which he looked for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes. A prolific composer who created hundreds of works, he became renowned for his concertos in Baroque style, becoming a highly influential innovator in form and pattern. It was during his term in Mantua, from around 1717 to 1721, that he wrote his four-part masterpiece, The Four Seasons. Caricature of Antonio Vivaldi, pen and ink on paper by Pier Leone Ghezzi, 1723; in the Codex Ottoboni, Vatican Library, Rome. These were acquired first by the Venetian bibliophile Jacopo Soranzo and later by Count Giacomo Durazzo, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s patron. https://www.biography.com/musician/antonio-vivaldi. His distinctive reddish hair would later earn him the soubriquet Il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”). Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music.
In early 18th-century Venice, opera was the most popular musical entertainment. Historically informed performances, often on "original instruments", have increased Vivaldi's fame still further. He seems to have remained committed to Catholicism, since the entry in the Vienna death records for him reads, "Antonio Vivaldi, Secular Priest". [9], Vivaldi's parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. Franz Schubert is considered the last of the classical composers and one of the first romantic ones. [51] The ink sketch, a caricature, was done by Ghezzi in 1723 and shows Vivaldi's head and shoulders in profile.
), Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass most likely because of his ill health. After meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support.