I’ve been working at Tempesta di Mare, a baroque chamber orchestra in Philadelphia, and my thoughts have been really engrossed in one particular project we are doing. This project is called Hidden Virtuosas, and focuses on particular women of baroque Venice.

The Ospedale della Pietà is most commonly known (if known at all) as the orphanage which composer Antonio Vivaldi worked at, providing musical instruction and opportunities to the children that were raised there. In particular, the girl’s choir, Figlie del Coro (daughters of the choir) is known to have garnered a lot of attention at the time, drawing crowds of esteemed musicians, critics, and nobles. An air of intrigue existed at these performances, as the girl’s performed behind a screen- and spent the rest of their time essentially as cloisters within the Ospedale. 

Despite whatever fantastic ideas the audiences may have conjured up of the girls, the origins of many of the girls were mostly unknown. After all, the Ospedale della Pietà was an orphanage- a place for children to be left anonymously. In some cases, the children that were left had illnesses or disabilities, as was the case for a girl named Agata. She was left, wrapped in velvet drapings, a sign of wealth at the time. It was presumed that she was left by a wealthy family due to her deformities, or perhaps because her parents had syphilis.

Agata was unique for more reasons than her physical appearance- her musical talent caused her to rise through the rankings at the Ospedale, as not just a singer, but a composer and instrumentalist as well. Within the walls of the Ospedale, she influenced many of the other girls raised there, and wrote prolifically, although unfortunately only fragments of her actual compositions remain. By all accounts, Agata was happy enough with this situation, to live amongst the other women of the Ospedale, and create music with, and for them behind the figurative and literal screen that kept them from the public.

But the question remains, what does the absence of this story in the pantheon of inspiring and influential figures throughout music history say? Why is her story relatively unknown, why wasn’t she “selected” amongst others to uphold?