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Antonio Vivaldi. What a joy to create!
Sezione 1
Sezione 2
When in Rome, do as the romans do
PRAGUE, Castle. 1730
PLAY ME
Years later, I happened to take another trip, this time to Prague.
I was to give the second performance of my opera, Fornace,
at the Sporck Theatre. It was in the spring of 1730. The theatre was named after Count Franz Anton von Sporck, a great lover of music both inside and outside Bohemia. He had long promoted theatre performances in Kuks and in his Prague palace,
and even allowed an Italian opera company to perform in his residence, which was granted free of charge for the purpose. The impetus for this move was the coronation of Charles VI in that city, an event accompanied by sumptuous opera productions in the castle courtyard.
Von Sporck saw fit to encourage the efforts of the Italian impresario Antonio Denzio, whose company managed to attract some of Italy's most brilliant singers to Prague, using me as a source of repertoire. I learned that the Count, however, did not provide financial support for the opera company,
apart from allowing me to use the theatre in his castle free of charge. However, he did not even attend the performances and, to make matters worse, the Prague nobility was gradually losing interest in Denzio's productions. What are we going to do about it? Evidently, these things had to end that way, sooner or later.
Sezione 3
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