Antonio Vivaldi. La fida ninfa, RV 714

By Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi set the libretto of La fida ninfa, a dramma per musica in three acts by Scipione Maffei, with a view to its use for the inauguration of the new theatre of the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona, which took place on 6 January 1732, during the carnival season, elaborate stage sets being provided by Francesco Bibbiena. This critical edition is based on the autograph manuscript of the score, preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria in Turin (Giordano 39 bis, ff. 154-298). The Introduction gives an analytical description of the main source employed and an overview of the most important collated secondary sources, which include a collection of arias prepared inVenice around 1732 by at least six different copyists working under Vivaldi’s supervision and today preserved in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek inDresden (Handschrift Mus. 2389-J-1). The critical edition of the score is complemented by a facsimile reproduction of the printed libretto of the opera, published atVerona in 1732 by Jacopo Vallarsi.