Music Book Review: Venetian Curiosities by Donna Leon, Baroque Era Title #2 With Vivaldi Concerti CD

All permanent settlements engender their share of local histories. A World Heritage Site since 1987, Venezia, La Serenissima (Venice, the most serene) and its lagoon furnish locals, tourists, transients, and visitors with unforgettable stories to hear and repeat. As world-respected ideator of Commissario Guido Brunetti detective and mystery novels, Donna Leon gathers a septet of tales, including:

• a baker being commemorated by one of the basilica’s ever-burning oil lamps for false accusation of theft and hanging;
• a customer discovering fingers of missing children in the neighborhood sausage-maker’s meats;
• a family dropping gold dinner plates into canals;
• a gambler risking the family palace;
• a pachyderm seeking sanctuary during Carnavale (Carnival); and
• prostitutes turning Venice into sixteenth-century Eurasia’s hot-spot. 

Venetian Curiosities has appeal as sources not only of folklore but also of art and music. For example, the text also introduces samples of the artistic output of:

• Giovanni Antonio Canal (October 17, 1697 – April 19, 1768); and
• Pietro Longhi (November 5, 1701 – May 8, 1785).  

Posterity judges the first-mentioned etcher, painter, and print-maker particularly adept at memorable Venice-scapes by:

• conferring the nickname Canaletto (little canal), in honor of his father being a theatrical scene painter and his stature being diminutive; and
• painting from nature, not inside studios.

Critics also know of the second-mentioned artist as an astute painter of:

• altarpieces and frescoes in his early years; and
• everyday life at Carnival, entertainments, and gambling later on. 

Music-lovers link Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741) with:

• cantatas, especially Pianti, sospiri;
• concerts, especially Le quattro stagioni;
• operas, especially La costanza trionfante and Farnace;
• oratorios, especially Juditha triumphans;
• sacred choral works, especially Nulla in mundo pax sincera;
• sonatas, especially Santo Sepolcro; and
• symphonies, especially al Santo Sepolcro.

They particularly memorialize his output as:

• ordained priest with Ospedale della Pietà’s choir and orchestra of abandoned girls; and
• violinist.

So Venetian Curiosities nudges audiences into culturally enriching, educationally entertaining, geo-historically enthralling journeys through seven each of image-rich, information-packed vignettes and stringed instruments-rich concerts on an enclosed 64-minute compact disc, thanks to:

• Donna Leon’s authorship;
• Riccardo Minasi’s and Il Complesso Barocco’s performances; and
• Antonio Vivaldi’s concerti. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

presumed portrait of Antonio Vivaldi; 1723 oil painting by unknown Bolognese painter
Disputed Baroque portrait is deemed to be either of composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi or of composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli.
Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica (International Museum and Library of Music), Bologna, Italy: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vivaldi.jpg

An Island in the Lagoon with a Gateway and a Church; 1743-1744 oil on canvas by Giovanni Antonio Canal (October 17/18,1697 – April 19, 1768)
view of Venice, a city of 118 islands linked by bridges and separated by canals in the Venetian Lagoon
Saint Louis Art Museum, Forest Park, western St. Louis, east central Missouri: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_Island_in_the_Lagoon_with_a_Gateway_and_a_Church.jpg

"Exhibition of a rhinoceros at Venice"; real event captured via ca. 1751 oil on canvas by Pietro Longhi
Clara the rhinoceros fascinates spectators in carnival costume while showman holds whip and Clara's horn, removed or rubbed off in Rome in 1750. The rhino curiosity, one of less than a handful seen in Europe, arrived in Venice in January 1751.
National Portrait Gallery, London, England: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pietro_Longhi_1751_rhino.jpg

Wien aus dem Luftballon gesehen von Südwesten (Vienna seen from southwest from air balloon): 1847 watercolor by Jakob Alt (September 27, 1789 – September 30, 1872)
St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephandom) was the venue for impoverished Antonio Vivaldi's music-less funeral.: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jakob_Alt_001.jpg

The Frozen Lagoon in 1708; 1708 oil on canvas by Gabriele Bela (ca. 1730 - 1799)
Although strongly associated with his birthplace of Venice, Antonio Vivaldi spent the last decade of his life with financial difficulties in Vienna, where he died and was buried.
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venice_frozen_lagoon_1708.jpg

Leon, Donna. 2012. Venetian Curiosities. Music by Antonio Vivaldi with Riccardo Minasi Conducting Il Complesso Barocco. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press.