BBC音乐资料片：维瓦尔第和他的女学生们 Vivaldi's Women

Pieta 如同英语的Pity， 是可怜，怜悯的意思。17，18世界的意大利威尼斯：La Pieta 是一慈善收容所的地方，La Pieta 收养弃婴，其中不少是妓女的孩子，还有流落街头无家可归的男孩女孩， 男孩们呆在那直到16岁，之后去学手工业：织布，做鞋，石匠， 女孩在那呆着要么长大嫁人，要么去当修女， 否则就一辈子呆在La Pieta了。在威尼斯大概有四所像La Pieta这样规模的慈善收容所。　

著名的意大利作曲家维瓦尔第，２５岁在S. Maria della Pietà教堂当神职人员，　并在下属的La Pietà 服务二十多年， 在那任小提琴老师，给有音乐天赋的女孩进行音乐训练（有音乐天赋的孩子约1/10这样），教她们声乐和乐器，　La  Pieta女童合唱团在威尼斯颇有名气，游人慕名而来，维瓦尔第的很多声乐作品和乐器作品都是为这个收容所的女孩写的。

我也总在想我为什么喜欢巴洛克的音乐，　也许是巴洛克音乐中那种朴素的人道主义和荣耀上帝的精神吸引着我吧。
　

The documentary "Vivaldi's Women" on BBC Four presented the story of an extraordinary creative partnership between one of history's great composers -- Antonio Vivaldi -- and an all-female orchestra and choir. In the early 18th century, Father Antonio Vivaldi was a violin teacher, musical director, musical instrument procurer and in-house composer for a Venetian institution called La Pietà, a home for children who had been abandoned at birth.

The institution had its own all-female orchestra and choir who provided sacred "entertainment" in the church for the visiting "Grand Tourists". The unique creative relationship that Vivaldi formed with these women resulted in what many believe to be one of the finest performing groups of all time.

The documentary also reveals the personal stories of this unique community of female musicians and the full extent of Vivaldi's relationship with the institution.

During five days in November 2005 Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi, directed by Richard Vendome, recorded and filmed three different programmes for the BBC on location at La Pietà. The choir of 18 past and present members of Oxford Girls' Choir (aged 14-33), together with seven older ladies, replicated Vivaldi's choir in size, age and vocal range, the lowest voices can singing down to bottom F on the bass stave!

Antonio Vivaldi, as well as being a composer, worked at the Ospedale della Pietà for much of the first half of the 18th century. This was one of four such institutions in Venice - a home for abandoned and unwanted babies, often the children of prostitutes. The boys there were trained in stone cutting, weaving and shoe making, so they could leave at 16 with a skill for the future. The girls however, unless they got married or became nuns, stayed there for the rest of their lives.

It was Vivaldi's job to train those girls who showed musical promise (about one in ten) to sing and play instruments during services at La Pietà. Vivaldi wrote many of his works for this female musical establishment, and evidence suggests that all the vocal parts were sung by women, including tenor and bass.

In November 2005 we travelled to Venice with 17 female members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Jerwood Experience, led by brilliant young virtuoso Nadja Zwiener, to perform at the church of La Pietà, staying in the Casa per Ferie, close to where the orphans used to live. The boned corsets of the 18th century costumes were elegant if rather constraining, and we filmed the "Gloria" by candlelight behind the grills in the galleries looking down on the main body of the church.

In addition to filming the "Gloria" we spent a day recording and rehearsing Vivaldi's music for Easter Vespers for BBC Radio 3, which was broadcast on "The Choir" on Easter Day 2006. The programme was presented by Aled Jones and Catherine Bott; the producer for the BBC was Michael Surcombe and the sound engineer was Mike Hatch.