The inspirations of Antonio Vivaldi
Was it only static landscape paintings that inspired The Four Seasons? Or was there more behind Vivaldi’s timeless masterpiece?
March 1, 1718 — Mantua, Italy
The wind and rain were unusual for the first day of March. Only yesterday the sun was so strong that he had spent a good part of the day writing outside, basking in the warmth he missed so keenly during the grey months of the cold Mantovan winter. Yesterday’s bright rays had raised his spirits with the first blush of spring in this little northern Italian town, snugly protected from its enemies by the three sparkling lakes that surrounded it.
Not that 41 year-old Antonio Lucio Vivaldi had much time to celebrate the weather. As he hurried back to his flat near the Piazza Sordello with fresh cheese and bread for breakfast, he thought about the aria he had just finished scoring this morning. It involved Manlio and Servilla, two of the characters in his new opera, Tito Manlio.
“Non mi vuoi con te, o crudele,” he sang as he skipped through the square.
He’d spent four long days and nights working on the new opera, written to celebrate the marriage of his patron, Prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, the governor of Mantua province. One more day, Antonio…
