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November 2008New Novel: The Four Seasons, A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice, Laurel CoronaNovember 6, 2008 09:14
I just finished reading a fascinating novel (historical fiction), about Vivaldi and two girls from the Ospedale della Pieta, the orphanage and musical academy that Vivaldi taught music and wrote so many of his pieces for. One sister, Chiaretta was exuberant, full of life, and a highly accomplished singer. The other sister, Maddalena, was passive, introspective and uncommunicative except through her violin. While Chiaretta lived and experienced life directly, both inside the convent and later married to an aristocrat, Maddalena became a violin virtuoso, staying inside the convent, and living only through her music. Vivaldi recognized in Maddalena, a musician that played poetry in her music. They played images of birds singing in the trees, falling leaves, alone in the dark, snow falling on my face. Maddalena loved the intimacy of the violin, a voice that is pressed close to her chest, and expresses all of the longing and desires she could never put into words. Here's an excerpt: He was staring at her when she finished. "You hear it in your heart first," he said, "That's important. Most people just play with their hands. Or worse, sometimes only with their heads." He paused. "Why are you crying?" "We are kindred souls, Maddalena Rossa," he told her one afternoon, using the name that he alone called her. "We both see that music is poetry," Maddalena felt her cheeks growing warm. She became his muse and trusted only Maddalena to perform some of his pieces. Of course this is fiction, but it evocates the times and places of Venetian life and society so well, intertwining the musical stories with the lives of these two sisters.
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