Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678. Though ordained a priest in 1703, according tohis own account, within a year of being ordained Vivaldi no longer wished to celebrate mass  In any event he had become a
priest against his own will. It was  the only way for a poor family to obtain free schooling.

    Though he wrote many fine and memorable concertos, such as the Four Seasons and the Opus. He also wrote many works which sound like exercises for students. And this is what they were. Vivaldi was employed for most of his working life by the Ospedale della Pietà. This Ospedale was in fact a home for the female offspring of nobelmen and their numerous dalliances with their mistresses.  Many of Vivaldi's concerti were indeed exercises which he would play with his many talented pupils.

    Vivaldi's relationship with the Ospedale began right after his ordination in 1703, when he was named as violin teacher there. Until 1709, Vivaldi's appointment was renewed every year and again after 1711. Between 1709 and 1711 Vivaldi was not attached to the Ospedale. In 1711twelve concertos he had written were published in Amsterdam by the music publisher Estienne Rogerunder the title l'Estro armonico (Harmonic Inspiration).

    In 1713, Vivaldi was given a month's leave from the Ospedale della Pieta  to stage his first opera, Ottone in villa, in Vicenza. In the 1713-4 season he was  attached to the Teatro Sant' Angelo, where he produced an opera by the composer Giovanni Alberto Rostori (1692-1753).

     In November, he managed to have the Ospedale della Pietà perform his first great oratorio, Juditha triumphans devicta Holofernis barbaric. This work was an allegorical description of the victory of the Venetians (the Christians) over the Turks (the barbarians) in August 1716.

    1717 Vivaldi moved to Mantua for two years to take up his post as Chamber
Kapellmeister at the court of Landgrave Philips van Hessen-Darmstadt. He was to provide operas, cantatas, and concert music, as well. His opera Armida had already been performed earlier in Mantua and in 1719 Teuzzone and Tito Manlio followed. In 172O Vivaldi returned to Venice where he staged new operas written by himself in the Teatro Sant' Angelo. In Mantua he had made the acquaintance of the singer Anna Giraud. She hadmoved in to live with him. Vivaldi maintained that she was no more than a housekeeper and good friend.

    "This priest, an excellent violinist but a mediocre composer, has trained Miss Giraud to be a singer. She was young, born in Venice, but the daughter of a French wigmaker." Vivaldi stayed with her until his death.

    Vivaldi also wrote works on commission from foreign rulers, such as the French king, Louis XV - theserenade La Sena festeggiante (Festival on the Seine).

    In Rome Vivaldi found a patron in the person of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a great music lover, who earlier had been the Maecenas (patron) of Arcangelo Corelli.The Pope asked him to come and play the violin for him at a private audience.

    Despite his stay in Rome and other cities, Vivaldi remained in the service of the Ospedale della Pieta, which nominated him "Maestro di concerti." He only had to send two concertos per month to Venice (transport costs were to the account of the client) and he received a ducat per concerto. His presence was
never required. He also remained director of the Teatro Sant' Angelo, as he did in the 1726, 7 and 8seasons.

    Between 1725 and 1728 some eight operas were premiered in Venice and Florence. "In less than three months Vivaldi has composed three operas, two for Venice and a third for Florence; the last has given something of a boost to the name of the theater of that city and he has earned a great deal of money."

    During these years Vivaldi was also extremely active in the field of concertos. In 1725 the publication Il Cimento dell' Armenia e dell'invenzione (The trial of harmony and invention), opus 8, appeared in Amsterdam. This consisted of twelve concertos, seven of which were descriptive: The Four Seasons, Storm at Sea, Pleasure and The Hunt.

 
    In 1730 Vivaldi, his father, and Anna Giraud traveled to Prague. In this music-loving city  Vivaldi met a Venetian opera company which between 1724 and 1734 staged some sixty operas in the theater of Count Franz Anton von Sporck. In the 1730-1731 season, two new operas by Vivaldi were premiered there after the previous season had closed with his opera Farnace, a work the composer often used as his showpiece.

    At the end of 1731 Vivaldi returned to Venice, but at the beginning of 1732 he left again for Mantua and Verona. In Mantua, Vivaldi's opera Semimmide was performed and in Verona, on the occasion of the opening of the new Teatro Filarmonico, La fida Ninfa, with a libretto by the Veronese poet and man of letters, Scipione Maffei, was staged.

    After his stay in Prague, Vivaldi concentrated mainly on operas. No further collections of instrumental music were published. However Vivaldi continued to write instrumental music, although it was only to sell the manuscripts to private persons or to the Ospedale della Pieta, which after 1735 paid him a fixed honorarium of 100 ducats a year.

    In 1738 Vivaldi was in Amsterdam where he conducted a festive opening concert for the 100th Anniversary of the Schouwburg Theater. Returning to Venice, which was at that time suffering a severe economic downturn, he resigned from the Ospedale in 1740, planning to move to Vienna under the
patronage of his admirer Charles VI. His stay in Vienna was to be shortlived however, for he died on July 28th 1741.