Vivaldi's Virgins (25 page)

abbracci:
hugs

Accademia degli Impediti:
“The Academy of the Impeded”—a short-lived Jewish musical academy in Venice whose existence was thwarted by various tragedies, including the Plague of 1630–1631

addio:
goodbye (
adieu
)

“Andiamo!”:
“Let’s go!”

ars musica:
art music—i.e., music containing polyphonic harmonies

baci:
kisses

bacino:
short for
il bacino di San Marco,
St. Mark’s Basin—the body of water where the Grand Canal, the Giudecca Canal, and the San Marco Canal all converge

bambina:
(female) child

baretta:
little hat

burattino:
puppet (term of endearment)

bauta:
silk or lace scarf, covering the lower jaw (worn while
in maschera
)

ca’:
Venetian dialect, short for
casa
—“house”

Campagnia dei Musici del Ghetto di Venezia:
“Musicians’ Society of the Venetian Ghetto,” organized by Rabbi Leon Modena

campo:
square (as in, a place surrounded by buildings)

cara (fem.) caro (masc.):
dear; an affectionate term of address

carica (sing.) cariche (plural):
senior member(s) of the
coro
who held the eight highest offices for the internal administration of the Pietà

il caro Sassone:
the dear Saxon (i.e., G. F. Handel)

corbetta:
measure of firewood, given as a reward for achievement

cornetto:
sweet crescent-shaped roll

coro:
literally “choir,” but referring here both to singers and instrumentalists

dispensiera:
the
carica
in charge of provisions and supplies

domino:
all-encompassing black silk gown (worn while
in maschera
)

ecco:
here (as in, “Here it is!”)

figlie di comun:
foundlings given a general education and occupational training (literally, “daughters of the common [group]”)

figlie di coro:
foundlings deemed to have musical talent (literally, “daughters of the choir”)

figlia mia:
“my daughter”; term of endearment

gnaga:
white grotesque mask

iniziata (sing.) iniziate (plural):
initiate(s) (female)

libro (sing.) libri (plural):
book(s)

Madre mia carissima:
my dearest mother

maestra (sing.) maestre (plural):
teacher (female)

maestro:
teacher (male)

maschera:
mask; mascherata: (fem.): masked

moreta:
a black velvet mask

ospedale (sing.) ospedali (plural):
in modern Italian, hospital; in Venice of yore, a charitable institution for those unable to care for themselves, such as orphans, foundlings, and the chronically ill

palazzo (sing.) palazzi (plural):
palace or building

parlatorio:
the parlor or visiting room of a cloistered community

pazza (fem.):
crazy

portinara (fem.):
door-keeper

poverina (fem.):
“poor thing”

Prete Rosso:
Red Priest

priora:
Prioress

putela:
little one

putte:
cupids, in modern Italian; in old Venetian dialect, virgin girls

scaffetta:
a drawer fashioned in the stone of the church wall where infants were abandoned to the care of the Pietà

scrivana (sing.) scrivane (plural):
the Pietà’s official scribes (there were two at any given time) (female)

scusi (polite):
“excuse me”

Serenissima:
most serene (affectionate name, even today, for Venice)

signorina:
miss

signor:
sir

signora:
madame

sottoportego:
sheltered passageway between buildings

violone:
fretted instrument with six strings (although some versions had five or, more rarely, four strings), generally tuned a fifth or an octave below the bass viol

visitatrice:
female visitor (i.e., a volunteer)

zendaletta:
capacious mantle (worn while
in maschera
)

zentildonna:
in Venetian dialect, a gentlewoman or, with
nobile
, a noblewoman

zietta:
“auntie”; a term of endearment

Aikema, Bernard, and Dulcia Meijers.
Nel Regno dei Poveri: Arte e storie dei grandi ospedali veneziani in età moderna (1474–1797)
. Verona: Istituzioni di Ricovero e di Educazione, 1989.

Baldauf-Berdes, Jane L. “Anna Maria della Pietà: The Woman Musician of Venice Personified,” in Cook, Susan C., and Judy S. Tsou, eds.
Cecelia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music.
Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

———.
Women Musicians of Venice: Musical Foundations, 1525–1855
. Oxford: Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press), 1996.

Barbier, Patrick.
La Venise de Vivaldi
. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2002.

Calimani, Riccardo.
The Ghetto of Venice
. Milan: Oscar Mondadori, 1995.

Davis, Robert C., and Benjamin Ravid, eds.
The Jews of Early Modern Venice
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Decroisette, Françoise.
Venise au temps de Goldoni
. Paris: Hachette Littératures, 1999.

di Robilant, Andrea.
A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the Eighteenth Century
. New York: Vintage, 2005.

Fortis, Umberto.
The Ghetto on the Lagoon: A Guide to the History and Art of the Venetian Ghetto (1516–1797)
. Venice: Storti Edizioni, 1987–2001.

Hampl, Patricia.
Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life
. New York: North Point Press, 1992.

Heller, Karl.
Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest of Venice
. Pompton Plains: Amadeus Press, 1991.

Kaley, Diana E.
The Church of the Pietà
. International Fund for Monuments, 1978.

Labie, Claude, and Jean-François Labie.
Vivaldi: Des Saisons à Venise.
Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

Laini, Marinella.
Vita Musicale a Venezia durante la Repubblica: Istituzioni e Mecenatismo
. Venice: Stamperia di Venezia, 1993.

Landon, H. C. Robbins.
Vivaldi: Voice of the Baroque
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Landon, H. C. Robbins, and John Julius Norwich.
Five Centuries of Music in Venice
. New York: Schirmer Books (division of Macmillan, Inc.), 1991.

Lang, Paul Henry.
George Frideric Handel
. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1996.

Laven, Mary.
Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent
. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.

Mamy, Sylvie.
La Musique à Venise et l’imaginaire français des Lumières
. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1996.

Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robinson, eds.
The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.

Monnier, Philippe.
Venice in the Eighteenth Century
. New York: Chatto and Windus, 1910.

Norwich, John Julius.
A History of Venice
. New York: Random House, 1982.

Pedrocco, Filippo.
Ca’ Rezzonico: Museum of Eighteenth-Century Venice
. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2001.

Ribeiro, Aileen.
Dress in Eighteenth-Century Europe
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

Selfridge-Field, Eleanor, with Edmund Correia, Jr.
Antonio Vivaldi: L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3, in Full Score.
Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1999.

Selfridge-Field, Eleanor.
Palade Veneta: Writings on Music in Venetian Society, 1650–1750.
Venice: Edizioni Fondazione Levi, 1985.

———.
Venetian Instrumental Music from Gabrieli to Vivaldi
. Mineola Dover Publications, Inc., 1994.

Talbot, Michael. “The Pietà as Viewed by Johann Cristoph Maier (1795)” in
Informazioni e Studi Vivaldiani 4, Bollettino Annuale dell’ Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi.
Milano: Ricordi, 2004.

———.
Vivaldi.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

White, Micky. “Biographical Notes on the ‘Figlie di coro’ of the Pietà contemporary with Vivaldi,” in
Informazioni e Studi Vivaldiani 21, Bollettino Annuale dell’ Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi.
Milano: Ricordi, 2000.

White, Micky, Giuseppe Ellero, and Don Gastone Vio.
Piccolo Museo della Pietà “Antonio Vivaldi”: Musica e Vita Quotidiana delle Allieve (Figlie di Choro) al tempo di Vivaldi
. Istituto Provinciale per L’Infanzia “Santa Maria della Pietà” di Venezia, 2004.

T
HE FOLLOWING
compact discs contain much of the music referenced in this novel. The reader should note, however, that many of the scenes involving this music are products of the novelist’s imagination. I’ve played a bit fast and loose with dates and places: some of the music might be off by as much as a year in terms of when it was published and when I show it being performed. Also, the “battle of the bands” between Handel and Scarlatti occurred in Rome, rather than Venice, although both musicians were in Venice, and are likely to have interacted, during the time I place them there.

Vivaldi: Six Violin Sonatas
(Opus 2, Nos. 1–6). Elizabeth Wallfisch, violin. Hyperion Records Ltd., London: 67467 (2004). [For the sonatas played by the
coro
in 1709]

Vivaldi: Sonate di Dresda.
Opus 111: 30154. Fabio Biondi, violinist. [For the music evocative of the B-flat sonata dedicated to Anna Maria]

Rome 1709: Handel vs. Scarlatti
. Stradivarius: 33623 (2002). [For the keyboard wonders performed by the two musicians in contest with one another, in my book at the Palazzo Foscarini]

L’Estro Armonico
(Opus 3). Europa Galante, Virgin Classics Ltd. 45315. Fabio Biondi, violin, director (1998). [For the concertos Anna Maria and Vivaldi play in the Ghetto]

Music from the Venetian Ospedali
. San Francisco Girls Chorus, on their own label (1998). [For a
Cum Sancti Spiritu
similar to what the girls and women of the
coro
might have sung under the balcony of the Foscarini palace]

Amori e Ombri: Duets and Cantatas.
La Venexiana. Rossana Bertini (1998). Opus 111: 30182. [For vocal music by Francesco Gasparini, composer of the oratorio performed for the Doge by the
coro
of the Pietà]

Antonio Vivaldi: Six Violin Concertos for Anna Maria.
Quaderno Musicale di Anna Maria: L’Arte dell’ Arco. Classic Produktion Osnabrück 777 078-2 (2005). Federico Gugliemo, violinist. [For the D-minor concerto written for Anna Maria, Bernardina, and Giulietta’s aborted confirmation party]

Arte dei Suonatori, La Stravaganza
: 12 Violin Concertos (Opus 4). Rachel Podger, violinist. Channel Classics: 19598 (2003). [For the
grave e sempre piano
movement of No. 4, and the largo movement of the F-major concerto, which Anna Maria plays in the deathbed scene]

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti (Opus 3, No. 8).
Interpretati Veneziani.
[For the A-major—with its two allegros—and the A-minor concerti, which Anna Maria and Bernardina perform with Vivaldi at the concert at San Francesco della Vigna]

Vivaldi Sacred Music—9. Choir of the King’s Consort. The King’s Consort.
Hyperion Records Ltd.: 66839 (2003). [I listened to this almost constantly while writing the book, along with
Sacred Music 5 and 7,
from the same series.]