Vivaldi’s Rise, Fall, and Rediscovery

Vivaldi died broke and forgotten, but in the 1720s he was the rockstar of

Baroque Europe. He published hit after hit, nobility commissioned his work,

and he ran opera houses across Italy. Then everything collapsed. By 1730,

musical taste shifted. Neapolitan opera was the new sound, and suddenly Vivaldi's style was considered

old fashioned. His opera ventures started failing. Travelers visiting Venice reported his music

was no longer in fashion. He kept composing, still selling concertos to the Pietà

orphanage and shipping manuscripts to patrons across Europe, but he stopped publishing.

Around 1740, desperate for a comeback, he moved to Vienna hoping Emperor