Almost after 300 years The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara are making peace with Antonio Vivaldi. The city’s archbishop had canceled the opera show and sent the Baroque composer into debt in the final years of the exile.
In the public theatre ‘Il Farnace’ where the opening show will hold on Thursday it comes to know that Ferrara Archbishop Giancarlo Perego is going to attend. And it is emphasizing the work of Vivaldi.
Marcello Corvino said in an interview that they want to give back Vivaldi what was taken from him by the story of the rule of King Pharnaces II.
From history, it is known that Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo banned Vivaldi’s shows from Ferrara which caused the cancellation of all the shows in the 1739 Carnival production of ‘Il Farnace’. His show was thoroughly enjoyed by the people of Italy and outside of the country. The reason behind banning his shows was that being a catholic priest he is celebrating the Mass and being in a relationship with one of his singers Anna Giro.
All these accusations were false because, in reality, he was not celebrating the Mass because he was suffering from respiratory disease and his relationship with the singer was like any other relationship that a composer should have with his singer, said Corvino.
By banning his shows only caused devastation in his career and made him financially broke as he had paid all the products beforehand for the show.
After that, he went into debt and died in 1741 in Vienna city.
A Ferrara-born church historian and theologian Massimo Faggioli said that Vivaldi had enjoyed his artistic freedom in his city Venice more than Ferrara which was under the authority of the pope.
Massimo Faggioli even said that Vivaldi had avoided a lot of things but couldn’t ignore the fact that how a church-controlled the culture.
The Vivaldi expert Federico Maria Sardelli who is holding the opera show said that Ruffo banned Vivaldi from Ferrara but he tried to do the production of the show of Ferrara. He had written a lot of stage directions and notations that are beyond comparison.
The same notation has been kept in the manuscript for the opening show. They are taking the guidance of the great Vivaldi in the opening show on Thursday, said Sardelli.
