Vivaldi Concerts in Venice

I saw the Collegium Ducale at the Palazzo delle Prigione (right next to the Bridge of Sighs) and it was amazing- the prison space is perfectly suited to this. We had a very close up view of the musicians because of the small venue. I highly highly recommend it.

In Sept 08 we had a very enjoyable time at a Vivaldi concert in the deconsecrated Church of San Vidal, which is at the Accademia Bridge end of the Campo Santo Stefano. No costumes, just young musicians dressed in black.

For both concert sites, where did you get your tickets?
Roger
Calgary

We saw a Vivaldi concert when we were in Venice and it was one of the highlights of our trip. I'll never forget it. Sorry, don't remember exactly where, but it was near the Rialto Bridge. We saw a poster for it and decided to check it out. I think they did wear costumes, don't know why that matters to Rick - it was amazing. I'm sure you'll see many posters for different concerts in different venues when you're there. You could also ask your hotel or get in touch with the Venice tourist office/chamber of commerce to find out.

The church had a ticket booth set up at the entrance and we bought our tickets there the day of the concert.

Thanks Bill. We should be able to get to one of them.

Susan, I think Rick feels that 'real' musicians don't dress up in costumes....Oh, and I will ask the hotel for a recommendation, but just wanted to see which ones others on this board had enjoyed.

Because it was Venice, costumes seemed very appropriate. The musicians we saw were just as good as the San Francisco symphony. Costumes didn't make a bit of difference to their quality.

The San Vidal church is where the group Interpreti Veneziani plays, they don't play in costume, so I guess they're the ones Rick recommends? I considered taking in one of their concerts last year but I was too exhausted by the time evening came round! www.interpretiveneziani.com.

I'm going in June and have been looking for similar information. I think Rick is just trying to steer visitors away from "tourist traps". Here's what he said in his blog on 4/17:

There's a new “historic play” in town called the Venice Show. My hunch was that it was cheesy, but I needed to see some of it (as it's heavily advertised, and hotels will push anything that nets them a kickback) to give it a yea or nay in my guidebook. My guide friend and I talked the girl at the desk into letting us pop in free for a bit of the $50 performance. She asked the woman who owned the show for permission, and she said in Italian (not knowing my friend spoke it), “I hope they're not trying to screw us.” Not letting that sway my critique of the show, we watched half an hour of it and left thinking that it is she (with such lofty promotions) who is trying to screw tourists out of $50 for 80 miserable minutes of cheesy theater.

The buzz among music-loving travelers here is that the €25 Baroque music concerts performed by musicians in black-and-white suits (Intrepreti Veneziani is the best ensemble) are great — and those performed by musicians in powdered wigs and leotards are more spectacle.

It's not Vivaldi, but one of my favorite memories of Venice was a shoe-string production of Puccini's "La Boheme" at Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, performed by some of the chorus members of La Fenice. I can't recall how we heard about it. Maybe a flier in front of La Fenice?

Looks like they're doing Tosca this Sunday: http://www.classictic.com/en/Opera-House-Tosca-in-SGiovanni-Evangelista/12603

Thanks, everyone. I'll let you know which one I end up seeing.

Definitely Interpreti Veneziani. I went last september and loved it.