アントニオ・ヴィヴァルディ

ヴィヴァルディは1678年、水の都ヴェネツィアで生まれました。生まれてすぐ、家で急いで洗礼を受けています。体が弱かったためか、その日に起きた地震のためと考えられていますが、はっきりしません。父はサン・マルコ大聖堂のヴァイオリン奏者で、息子に楽器を教えました。父も赤い髪だったと言われ、ヴィヴァルディの赤い髪は、のちに彼のあだ名になります。Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678. He was baptized at home right after birth, perhaps because he was weak, or perhaps because an earthquake shook the city that day. No one knows for sure. His father, a violinist at St. Mark's Basilica, taught him the violin. His father is also said to have had red hair, and Vivaldi's own red hair later gave him his nickname.

ヴィヴァルディは司祭（神父）になりましたが、胸の病気（ぜんそくと考えられています）を理由に、まもなくミサをあげるのをやめました。かわりに、身寄りのない女の子たちが暮らす「ピエタ養育院」でヴァイオリンを教え、少女たちのオーケストラのために次々と曲を書きます。その演奏は、外国から旅行者が聴きに来るほど評判でした。Vivaldi became a priest, but he soon stopped saying Mass because of a chest illness, probably asthma. Instead, he taught violin at the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for orphaned and abandoned girls. He wrote piece after piece for its all-girl orchestra. Their concerts were so famous that travelers from other countries came to hear them.

1725年には、「四季」を含む協奏曲集を出版します。春の小鳥、夏の嵐、秋の収穫祭、冬の寒さを、短い詩とともに音で描いたものです。オペラでも大活躍し、イタリア各地の劇場で働いたほか、中央ヨーロッパにも出かけました。一方で、いつも共演していた歌手アンナ・ジローとの関係がうわさになり、司祭なのにミサをしないことも批判されました。In 1725 he published a set of concertos that included The Four Seasons. These pieces paint spring birds, summer storms, autumn harvest parties, and winter cold, each with a short poem. He was also a busy opera composer, working in several Italian cities and traveling into central Europe for his music. But people gossiped about his close friendship with the singer Anna Girò, and some criticized him for being a priest who did not say Mass.

晩年、ヴェネツィアでの人気が落ちると、ヴィヴァルディは神聖ローマ皇帝カール6世をたよってウィーンへ向かいます。ところが皇帝はまもなく亡くなり、ヴィヴァルディも1741年、ウィーンで貧しく亡くなりました。その後、作品の多くはほとんど演奏されなくなりましたが、まったく忘れられたわけではありません。1920年代に大量の楽譜が見つかって研究と演奏が進み、今では世界中で愛される人気作曲家です。Late in life, when his popularity in Venice faded, Vivaldi went to Vienna, hoping for support from Emperor Charles VI. But the emperor died soon after, and Vivaldi died poor in Vienna in 1741. After that, most of his music was rarely played, although it was not completely forgotten. Then, in the 1920s, a huge collection of his manuscripts was found, and scholars and performers began to bring it back. Today he is one of the most loved composers in the world.