Vivaldi and Me

Italy, 1716. Raised in the Pio Ospedale della Pietà orphanage in Venice, Cecelia (Tecla Insolia) is a virtuoso on the violin. (The young women regularly perform at church services, an appointment that raises funds for the institution.) When a struggling composer, Antonio Vivaldi, is appointed as the music master at the orphanage, he inspires Cecelia with his passion for music, and he too is struck by her prodigious talent. But she has already been promised to a returning soldier, an arranged marriage that will mean the end of her public musicianship…

While not a biopic (Cecelia is a fictional character), the first feature film from opera director Damiano Michieletto does shed light on Vivaldi’s life and music — he really did teach at the Ospedale for 40 years, largely unknown beyond Venice, and his concertos surge across the soundtrack. It’s a rare movie in which the shared love of music is privileged over physical romance.

Apicturesque backdrop of 18th-century Venice, a beautiful orphan, a baroque classical score featuring the music of Vivaldi – [this is] crowd-pleasing, prestige period drama […] Theappeal of uch handsome, romantic productions persists.

Wendy Ide, The Observer