Studio MIR
The federal agency for culture and cinematography
Present
Tales of the old piano
I guard the eternal secrets of the museum of Music
Violins
Oh, I hear familiar sounds: Rippling water, splashing, Venice...
No cat could ever forget life in the middle of water
Antonio Vivaldi
The Venetian carnival, several months a year: People relaxing and working in masks.
Music, dancing and laughing, Freedom, happiness and joy...everywhere.
and one spring, on March the 4th 1678,
Antonio Vivaldi was born to the family of Giovanni,
violinist and hairdresser and his wife Camilla.
He was born so frail that the midwives rushed to baptize him.
Mm. Antonio Vivaldi: Four seasons - The spring
In Venice at that time, with the hairdressers You could get a haircut, shave, first aid,...
you could read and hear all the gossip or play violin while waiting your turn.
Violins were stacked in the corner Like glossy magazines are today.
He, doggy, what are you doing here?!
Get away!...Scram!
Of the five Vivaldi children only Antonio became a musician.
By the time he was ten Antonio could substitute for his father in the orchestra of st. Marks Cathedral.
Later both father and son were listed in a guidebook of Venice as the city's greatest violinists
Antonio became a priest.
Rumor had it he was so impassioned by music, he would disappear from the pulpit and write music in the margins of the bible.
Asthma interfered with his ability to say mass.
As a virtuoso violinist he was invited to teach in one of those new fangled schools called conservatories
The ospedale della pieta was actually an orphanage
Children were orphaned or abandoned through a special little window in the wall
Above the window was a sign that said: "It is a sin to abandon children without great need."
What frightful models those Venetians had. After carnival they would give birth like cats.
In this orphanage or conservatory they used to teach music to the abandoned girls
Antonio was given a nickname: The red-haired priest
He designed this vault with special acoustics so his music would sound better.
Summer is another concerto from his four seasons cycle.
Opera...
...was the most popular entertainment in Venice.
The shows lasted sometimes for several days.
People would cook in the theater, receive guests, play cards during the show...
Some 50 Vivaldi opera's are known today. He was his own impresario.
He cast and hired the singers, he sketched and designed the costumes, sets and decorations
he even sold the tickets.
But in his life as in his music autumn came:
Antonio Vivaldi - The four seasons - Autumn.
The clerical authorities of Italy condemned him for...
frivolity and unconventional use of his violin: He lengthened the neck!
they were highly suspicious that he could compose music freely and perfectly.
Never having to make changes and when he traveled he was accompanied by a singer and a nun
who were sisters and so he was forbidden to put on any new operas,
and finally, he was exiled from Venice.
Antonio Vivaldi - The four seasons - Winter
Winter is his farewell to his beloved Venice, snowing and frozen.
Vivaldi was completely forgotten, both by his home town and the whole world.
Only after 200 years in 1926
in an obscure Italian monastery
several volumes of his compositions were found.
and now we know him as one of the greatest composers of the barock-era.
That's all for now.
See you later!
Written by Irina Margolin Director, animator Oxana Cherkasova Artist Boris Vishev
Editor Vladimir Maslakovich Animation Aleksei Karayev, Olga Chernova Irina Kryuchkova, Yulia Cherkasova
Sound Lola Bukaeva, Ivan Voronin, Lana Kovalevskaya Assistants G Liakhovetskyi, E Sula, K Kopieva Production managers D Vorobiov, L Tomko
project direction Alexander Zukov Musical theme intro Kusma Bodrov Scholarly consultant & researcher E B Dolinskaya
Thanks to The Moscow PI Tchaikovsky State Conservatory Glinka museum of musical culture & Nina Meleshina Valentin Olshvang, Boris Pavlov, Alexandra Buchmasn
& Kutzya the cat
Narration Evgenyi Mironov General manager Irina Margolina
Subtitles by Eus after the English narration by Timothy Dalton
The End 2007, studio Mir, Moscow