After achieving fame in Venice, Vivaldi embarked in 1718 on an extensive period of travel, mostly within Italy. For Florence, the capital of Tuscany, he composed one of his most accomplished operas, L’Atenaide, which was performed on 29 December 1728 at the famous Teatro della Pergola, with Vivaldi’s protégée, the excellent Anna Giro, in the title role. The work received a most enthusiastic reception. L’Atenaide, in a Byzantine setting, boasts a highly original style, and music that is very rich, with an extraordinary number of arias, written specially for the work or borrowed from other recent operas by Vivaldi. Thus we have the opportunity to hear again, for example, the marvellous ‘Nel Profondo’ from Orlando furioso, produced two years earlier.
The Vivaldi Edition presents the world première recording of this opera, with an exceptional cast: Sandrine Piau in the title role (her third contribution to this series, after a remarkable In furore), experienced Vivaldi exponents Nathalie Stutzmann, Vivica Genaux and Guillemette Laurens, the very talented young singer Romina Basso, and old hands Paul Agnew and Stefano Ferrari. The work is conducted by the eminent Florentine conductor and Vivaldi specialist Federico Maria Sardelli, who here fulfils his dream of recording L’Atenaide not only in his native Florence, but in the very theatre in which it was first performed two hundred and seventy-nine years ago.

Synopsis

Eudossa having flown from Athens with her father Leontino and taken refuge in the then Roman Byzantium in order to escape the attentions of Varane is about to wed the Eastern Roman Emperor Teodosio, a union very much approved by the Emperor’s sister  Pulcheria. On the very eve of the wedding, Varane, son and heir to the kingdom of Persia, reaches Byzantium, vainly pining over his beloved whom he knew under the name of Atenaide. Teodosio, grateful to Varane’s father and keen to forge a lasting bond between the two families sees in this arrival the opportunity of marrying his sister Pulcheria, who is however already courted by Marziano a Byzantine general whose social standing cannot hope to match hers and whom Teodosio, sensing danger to his plans, sends off to earn glory and trophies against the Bulgarian forces, and Probo the Emperor’s attendant who, rejected by Pulcheria decides that if he  hall not have her neither shall Marziano. Teodosio welcomes Varane with great warmth and proudly presents him to his future wife. Varane and Eudossa/Atenaide cannot hide their surprise, and Teodosio is extremely upset to find out that his wife to be has already had amorous exchanges with another, but forcing reason to dominate his passions he suggests that Eudossa be the one to decide, by presenting the one she truly loves with a precious jewel he produces. Eudossa has no doubts;  eodosio who has welcomed her and loved her respectfully from the outset is the one who is truly deserving of her love. She explains  his to Probo, and hands him the ring in order that he may deliver it to his master.
But Probo, seeing the opportunity of achieving his aims, betrays the trust the Emperor has placed in him and hands the ring over to Varane, suggesting however that, given the situation, the best way to make sure of getting what he wants is to kidnap the beautiful Atenaide, for fear that Teodosio might just change his mind.
Believing his beloved to have chosen his rival, Teodosio banishes an astonished Eudossa without any explanation, and, rejected also by her friend Pulcheria, she decides to flee once more with her father Leontino, but in the process she encounters Varane who kidnaps her instantly. Leontino raises the alarm, gradually Probo’s cunning plot comes to light and Marziano, who has lingered in Byzantium,  incapable of separating himself from his beloved Pulcheria, sets the world to rights by freeing Eudossa from the clutches of Varane and returning her to Teodosio. And they all lived . . .

The Vivaldi Edition

The Vivaldi Edition, a recording venture conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso and the independent label Naïve, is one of the most ambitious recording projects of the twenty-first century. Its principal objective is to record the massive collection of Vivaldi autograph manuscripts preserved today in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin, some 450 works. Incredibly, this is the private library of scores Vivaldi had at home at the time of his death in Vienna in 1741 and includes his extant operas, hundreds of concertos, sacred compositions and cantatas. Much of this music has not been heard since the 18th century.
The release of more than 100 CDs, which began in 2000, will extend over the next ten years. The Vivaldi Edition's goal is to make this extraordinary wealth of music available to the public and at the same time to reveal the full genius of Vivaldi, not only as a composer of instrumental music, for which he was already known, but as the creator of some of the 18th-century’s most exhilarating vocal music. More than twenty-five titles have been released to date and this is the sixth opera in the series.
Beyond this the Vivaldi Edition is active promoting affiliated concerts in major festivals and concert series throughout Europe and in developing multimedia projects which bring together musicians, film-makers, authors, visual artists and others.