![]() ![]() Gear changes between registers can be a bit hair-raising, but there’s no doubting her ferocious attack which make rage arias such as “Ho il cor già lacero” from Griselda a ballsy tour de force. Sonia Prina’s pulpy contralto, with tar black low notes, is certainly distinctive, if not conventionally attractive. Whatever the speculation, there’s no doubting that Vivaldi composed some of his finest vocal writing for Girò. Was it an innocent relationship – many priests had a live-in lady who acted as housekeeper and companion – or was it something more? Gossip spread and when his opera Farnace was due to be performed in Ferrara, the city’s cardinal barred Vivaldi from entry on account of his loose morals! In 1724, she and her elder half-sister moved in with Vivaldi. She was born Anna Maddalena Tessieri in Mantua and she began to study with Vivaldi in 1720, going on to create roles in several of his operas. A third muse – an unidentified flautist – was represented by recorder magician Dorothee Oberlinger.Īnna Girò was not an orphan and Girò was but her stage name. This evening’s lively Wigmore Hall programme from the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca featured concertos written for Anna Maria, performed by the young Russian violinist Alina Pogostkina, along with arias composed for another of Vivaldi’s muses, the mezzo-soprano Anna Girò, personified here by feisty Italian contralto Sonia Prina. The Red Priest composed at least 28 violin concertos for Anna Maria, but although her performances drew the tourists every weekend, she never left the orphanage. ![]() By the age of eight, her violin playing had caught the eye – and ear – of Antonio Vivaldi, music director of the all-female “coro” which entertained high class Venetian audiences. Anna Maria was deposited there in 1696, a baby posted through a flap in the wall. But how about Anna Maria della Pietà? The clue is in the name, for Pietà was not her surname but a reference to the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage in Venice. Think Niccolò Paganini, Joseph Joachim or Eugène Ysaÿe. Many violin concertos were inspired by great virtuosos, players with dazzling international reputations. ![]()
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