fright is quite admissible, and after all this is not the first time she
has performed in public.
‘Everything will be fine,’ he promises Paolina, who is,
perhaps, even more terrified than Anna.
And on the night everything is fine. The audience loves the drama,
the music, and especially the performances of La Polpetta and Anna.
The end of the premiere sees Anna drunk with happiness,
completely overjoyed that it has gone so well. Not once has her
voice faltered and neither has she missed a note. And you only have
to listen to them to know how the public adores her! Farnace runs
and runs for weeks, and Vivaldi decides on the last night to repeat
the production the coming autumn.
It could not have been a lovelier start to spring. Only one
thing dampens the success of Anna and Farnace, and that is the sad
news from Rome of the death of Francesco Gasparini. Just last year
he had been named Maestro di cappella of San Giovanni in Laterano, the
cathedral of Rome. Giambattista is stunned. Francesco was a
couple of years his junior and once more he is reminded of his own
mortality. His mind full of dark thoughts, he opens the ledger to
assure himself yet again that the family is financially safe for the
foreseeable future.
The letter from Rome has quite a different effect upon Antonio. He
re-reads it in silence, praying for the soul of his old mentor. Then,
with a deep sigh, he puts away the death notice, never to look at it
again. It is becoming more and more difficult for him to reconcile
himself to the death of those around him. Each comes as a sort of
sign from God, reminding him that with every heartbeat his own
end approaches. He does not share the belief held by many that he
will live on in his music. He barely recognises himself in his
compositions when others play them, even when the violinist is
Anna-Maria from the Pietà. Yes, even she, who plays with such
technical perfection; it is her own heart and soul she puts into
interpretation of his creation. It is not his pure work that issues
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