Antonio Vivaldi

La Griselda, RV 718

Critical edition by Marco Bizzarini and Alessandro Borin

Edizione critica delle Opere di Antonio Vivaldi

Ricordi, Milan, 2015

La Griselda, RV 718, was composed and performed in Venice, in the spring of 1735, for the occasion of the Ascensiontide fair (Sensa). The task of adapting the libretto by Apostolo Zeno to the particular exigencies of the production was assigned to a young writer of comedies attached to the company led by Giuseppe Imer: Carlo Goldoni. e latter immortalized in his Mémoires his meeting with Vivaldi and the composer’s inseparable prima donna, the contralto Anna Giraud, confessing to having been forced against his will to “assassinate” Zeno’s drama at the composer’s whim. La Griselda, which despite Goldoni’s complaints was favourably received by the audience at the San Samuele theatre, remained the sole opera by Vivaldi to be staged at a theatre owned by the powerful Grimani family. e critical edition of the score, which is preceded by photographic reproductions of the autograph manuscript, also contains a complete facsimile reprint of the libretto. Supplementary texts for this edition, published in a separate volume, include a historical Introduction and a Critical Commentary listing and discussing all the variants present in the main sources and collated secondary sources.