Concerts in Venice
One of the activities you can enjoy in Venice is attending a classical music or opera concert. These take place in the city's churches or palaces. Many performances are also organized at the Teatro La Fenice.
Concerts in the San Vidal and Pietà churches (the latter known as "Vivaldi's church") are organized by the group Interpreti Veneziani. This classical music ensemble was established in 1987 and, aside from the concerts it holds in Venice, participates in tours and classical music festivals all over the world.
Concerts take place almost every day of the week, and the performing musicians usually change from one performance to another. Depending on the date, Vivaldi's concertos from "The Four Seasons" series are performed, as well as other works by Vivaldi, Corelli, Mozart, Bach, or Handel.
Seats are not assigned, so if you want a better spot, it would be best to arrive about 30-45 minutes before the concert begins. Do not forget that you are in a church, so clothing must be adequate. Taking photos during the concert is forbidden.
Concerts in the San Vidal Church
You can reach the San Vidal Church very easily by taking the vaporetto (line 1 or 2) and getting off at the Accademia station. The church is located right next to the Ponte dell'Accademia, opposite the Gallerie dell'Accademia.
The San Vidal Church has not been used for religious ceremonies for a long time. For a while, it was used as an exhibition space for modern and contemporary art, and later it was arranged as a venue for classical music concerts.
The price of a concert is €32/ adult, and €26 for persons under 25 and over 65. The duration is approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Book Concert Ticket in San Vidal Church
The first church on this site was built in the year 1084, during the time of Doge Vitale Falier, and was dedicated to Saint Vitale (or Vidal), his patron saint. Over time, the church was rebuilt several times, with its current appearance dating back to the end of the 17th century.
Inside the San Vidal Church, there are several important works of art. Above the altar, you can see "The Glory of St. Vidal", painted by Vittore Carpaccio in 1514. The panel depicts San Vitale on horseback and four saints adoring the Virgin and Child. On either side are marble statues sculpted by Antonio Gai, representing "Faith" and "Fortitude".
On the left wall is "The Immaculate Conception", painted by Sebastiano Ricci, and "Crucified Christ with Saints" by Giulia Lama.
Not far from San Vidal is the San Maurizio Church, which houses the Museum of Music.
Concerts in the Pietà Church
Another church where concerts are organized is Santa Maria della Visitazione, also called Chiesa della Pietà. You can reach it via the vaporetto lines (San Zaccaria station) or on foot if you are near Piazza San Marco (the church is 5 minutes from the Doge's Palace, on Riva degli Schiavoni).
In this church, they perform either Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" or a selection called "Around Vivaldi", featuring pieces by Vivaldi and other 18th-century composers. The price of a concert is €34/ person. As with the concerts in San Vidal Church, the duration is around 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Book "The Four Seasons" Concert Ticket
Book "Around Vivaldi" Concert Ticket
This is the church often promoted as "Vivaldi's church". The truth, however, is that Vivaldi never played here. The great violinist and composer died in 1741, and the church you see today was built between 1745 and 1760. Vivaldi did indeed work at the Pietà Church, but in the old church, which no longer exists today. That one was located where the Hotel Metropole now stands (to the right of the current church). Inside, the hotel still preserves (behind the lobby, to the right) two columns from the old structure.
This fact, however, does not diminish the experience of attending a concert in Chiesa della Pietà, especially since the church was built from the very beginning for this purpose and has an interesting story. Its architect, Giorgio Massari, designed it so that the acoustics would be excellent, as it was also used as a concert hall. The oval-shaped interior was specifically thought out to aid acoustics, and the entrance atrium was meant to isolate it from outside noise.
Next to the church used to stand in the past the monastery of the same name, alongside which an orphanage operated, where music was taught. The institution was called Pio Ospedale della Pietà and was established in 1346. Its founder, the monk Pieruzzo d'Assisi, moved by the large number of children abandoned on the streets of Venice, walked throughout the city shouting Pietà! Pietà! ("Mercy! Mercy!") to collect donations - hence the name Pietà. On one side of the church, on the exterior, a plaque is still preserved with an inscription cursing and excommunicating, according to a papal bull from 1548, those who have the means to raise their children but abandon them at the Pietà orphanage.
Something else remains from the old church - what is called in Italian the ruota degli innocenti ("wheel of the innocents") - a system designed so that parents forced to abandon their children could maintain their anonymity. It was a sort of rotating cylinder, usually made of wood, with one open side. This was placed in a niche in the wall of monasteries or hospitals, facing outward and protected by a grate system with openings that allowed only newborns to be passed through. Parents would place the baby in this opening and ring a bell. Then someone from the monastery or hospital, as applicable, would come and turn the cylinder, thus bringing the child inside the institution. "Wheels" of this kind are still preserved in Florence (at Ospedale degli Innocenti), Rome (at the former Santo Spirito in Saxia hospital, near the Vatican), or Pisa (at Ospedale dei Trovatelli), as well as in other cities in Europe.
The "wheel of the innocents" from the former Pietà monastery is found today embedded in the wall of the Hotel Metropole (on the side, toward Calle della Pietà).
The girls who lived in the orphanages attached to the monasteries studied music and, most of the time, became very good instrumentalists, forming true orchestras that played in churches. In the Pietà Church, you can still see today, on both sides and above the main entrance, the wrought iron grilles behind which the orphan girls sang.
Inside the church, there are two paintings by Giambattista Tiepolo: on the ceiling above the entrance is the fresco "Fortitude and Peace", and on the ceiling above the choir is "The Triumph of Faith".
Other Concerts
Besides the concerts organized in the two churches mentioned above, other shows also take place in Venice. Among them are the opera show with three tenors and arias by Verdi and Puccini or the concert performed by the Collegium Ducale Orchestra in the great Council Hall of the Prisons Palace, next to the Doge's Palace. You can also choose a mandolin concert or "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, performed by musicians dressed in opera costumes.
