Sunday Opera 11/6/11

Antonio Vivaldi — Ottone in Villa. Vivaldi was already well-established as a composer of instrumental music in 1713 when his career took a major shift. First he received an appointment in Venice as a choral maestro that made him responsible for supplying liturgical music for regular services as well as for special occasions. Then he received a commission from a new theater in the provincial city of Vincenza to produce his first opera. The result was Ottone in Villa, a semi-serious work with plenty of comic elements in the plot. Vivaldi went on to compose over forty operas that have only recently begun to receive the attention they deserve. Richard Hickox leads the Collegium Musicum 90.