Antonio Lucio Vivaldi nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The
Red Priest") because of his red hair, was an Italian
Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born
in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest
Baroque composers, and his influence during his
lifetime was widespread over Europe. Vivaldi is known
mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially
for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and over
40 operas. His best known work is a series of violin
concertos known ...(+)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The
Red Priest") because of his red hair, was an Italian
Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born
in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest
Baroque composers, and his influence during his
lifetime was widespread over Europe. Vivaldi is known
mainly for composing instrumental concertos, especially
for the violin, as well as sacred choral works and over
40 operas. His best known work is a series of violin
concertos known as The Four Seasons.
Bajazet (also called Il Tamerlano) is an Italian opera
composed by Antonio Vivaldi in 1735. Its libretto was
written by Agostino Piovene. It was premiered in
Verona, during the Carnival season of that year. This
opera (catalog number RV 703) is presented in 3 acts,
with a three-movement sinfonia as an introduction. The
story is about the fate of Bajazet (known as Beyazid I)
after being captured by Tamerlane (Timur Lenk).
Bajazet is a pasticcio. It was a common practice during
Vivaldi's time for composers to borrow and adapt arias
from other composers with their own works for an opera.
Vivaldi himself composed the arias for the good
characters (Bajazet, Asteria and Idaspe) and mostly
used existing arias from other composers for the
villains (Tamerlano, Irene, Andronico) in this opera.
Some of the arias are reused from previous Vivaldi
operas. The famous aria, "Sposa son disprezzata" (The
Scorned Wife) is from this opera and this arrangement
was created for Viola & Acoustic Piano.