Antonio Vivaldi: «La fida ninfa» RV 714 (Opera in three acts)
Libretto by Scipione Maffei
First performance: Verona, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, January 6, 1732
Edition: Critical edition by Marco Bizzarini and Alessandro Borin (Ricordi, Milan)
Performance in Italian with German surtitles

On January 6, 1732, the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona was inaugurated with the premiere of the opera «La fida ninfa». The theater building was one of the most magnificent and expensive of the 18th century. Antonio Vivaldi was commissioned to compose the opera, not due to his reputation in the field of musical theater, but to prevent Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, the originally intended composer, from doing so. Vivaldi composed the work in less than two months. It was replayed in 1737 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna to celebrate the birth of Empress Maria Theresa's first daughter, Maria Elisabeth. This performance marked Vivaldi's first opera to be performed in the city where he would spend his last years.

«The Faithful Nymph» consists of three acts, with a series of magnificent da capo arias that testify to the full maturity of their creator. Vivaldi's pen transforms numerous codes and clichés, which the accompanying libretto is full of. Marchese Francesco Maffei, the builder of the new Veronese theater, wrote the libretto. What is even more unusual is that Vivaldi also demonstrates the extraordinary artistic level of his work in a series of ensembles, including a duet, a trio, a quartet, and several short choruses.

Vocally, «La fida ninfa» is one of the most challenging scores of the «prete rosso». The arias of the nymph Licori and her lost lover Morasto mark «the pinnacle of Vivaldian vocal virtuosity» and compete with each other in their virtuosity. The lower voices benefit from a balanced treatment, with memorable numbers such as «Chi dal cielo o dalla sorte,» a bravura aria of the pirate Oralto, or the deeply moving «Deh, ti piega, deh consenti» of Narete, one of the composer's most beautiful tenor arias. In this jewel of baroque vocal art, Vivaldi conveys the heart-rending plea of the old shepherd at the feet of his oppressor through the use of a syncopated motif that the violins tirelessly repeat, while the voice sings its prayer in adagio, only to collapse almost onomatopoeically in jerky vocalizations. The wonderful piece of music had to be repeated at the end of last year's Cesti final concert and earned the well-deserved 1st prize for Laurence Kilsby from Britain.