il farnace

The drama revolves around the dynastic tragedy of King Farnace, opposed by his mother-in-law and imprisoned. In order to comply with the usual happy ending, however, even the proud Berenice gives in to love for her daughter Tamiri, Farnace’s wife, thus sparing her son-in-law’s life. Among the secondary characters, the authoritative representation of the Roman conquerors (Pompey and Aquilius) is portrayed in benevolent tones, gaining in humanity in the confrontation with the barbarian antagonists Berenice and Gilade.

The opera is part of a group of wonderful theatrical works written by Vivaldi between 1726 and 1728. It enjoyed widespread fame and was revived, within a few years, in various Italian and European cities, such as Livorno (1729), Prague (1730), Mantua (1732) and Ferrara (1739). The version written for the Ferrara Theatre was to have been performed for the 1739 Carnival, but Cardinal Ruffo, the Papal legate of the Emilian city, banned Vivaldi, who was a priest, for alleged immoral conduct due to his too intimate relationship with the contralto Anna Girò, his favourite singer and almost always his prima donna. The performance was cancelled and Vivaldi died poor and in debt in Vienna two years later, without being able to stage this painful version.

Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli is one of the greatest connoisseurs of Vivaldi’s work.