Anna and Paolina Giraud

News about Antonio Vivaldi

Find Your Concert

Anna and Paolina Giraud

Vivaldi re-established his contacts with the Pietà in 1723, with the commitment to write two new concerts a month for the Institute. Later, in the works of Vivaldi represented in Venice, the young Anna Giraud appears as prima donna. He made his debut at a very young age in 1724-25 at San Moisè and at Sant’Angelo in 1726-28, where he sang in the opera by Vivaldi Dorilla. She was very successful and soon became a pupil and friend of Antonio, singing in his operas, but also traveling and living with him for a period. A somewhat embarrassing situation for a Catholic priest, despite the frequent claims of innocence of their relationship.

There are no (to date) certain portraits of Anna, but Carlo Goldoni describes her as "beautiful and graceful", with beautiful hair and a graceful figure. Her mezzo-soprano voice was neither strong nor particularly beautiful, but she could act very well, which was unusual for the time. In short, he became a little star, very close to Vivaldi, together with his older sister Paolina, who probably looked after him due to his health conditions.

Between Antonio and Anna there were about thirty years of difference. Always next to Vivaldi, traces of the Girauds are lost on the very last and definitive trip to Vienna.