At the Pio Ospedale della Pietà, still existing today as the Istituto Provinciale per l’Infanzia Santa Maria della Pietà, orphaned and abandoned girls lived, where they were taught music.
Later, it also welcomed daughters from noble families, placed in the institute before a good marriage.The orchestras of the institutions (besides La Pietà, the Ospedaletto, the Mendicanti, and the Incurabili) were entirely female, which was quite unusual for the time: “formed by abandoned or orphaned girls, and those whose parents were unable to educate them, they are educated at the State's expense, and trained exclusively to become excellent musicians.
Therefore, they sing like angels, and there is no instrument, no matter how large, that they fear: exceptional music, here, is that of the hospices” (de Brosses).
Founded in 1345-46 on Riva degli Schiavoni and enriched by the Chapel of La Pietà, enlarged to its current form in 1745, the hospital was maintained by the State, and its residents, 500 in 1633, numbered about a thousand in 1738. The “daughters of the choir,” dedicated to music, when they did not marry or become nuns (as they were not allowed to practice their profession outside the institute, with the exception of the singers), often grew old in its orchestra, delighting visitors from all over Europe and providing financial relief for the hospital.
So well-trained that they could both sing and play various instruments, they specialized in unusual instruments, perhaps to attract the curious: among them were the bagpipes, the English viola, the psaltery, as well as the clarinet, the transverse flute, the horn, and the timpani. Many of these were used between 1703 and 1740, when Vivaldi alternately served at La Pietà, and in the early years, he also took care of renewing the instrument collection of the Chapel: violins and cellos of various sizes (remembering that the students started as children), strings, and bows.
The interior of the Church of La Pietà, completed in 1760, was designed by architect Massari in an oval shape. During its construction, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo created the oval fresco on the vault between 1754 and 1755. The fresco depicts the Coronation of the Immaculate Mary, whose cult was particularly important in the Ospedale della Pietà, as she was considered the patroness of the young residents, symbolized by a pomegranate flower pinned in their hair.
Between 1703 and 1740, Antonio Vivaldi, the Red Priest, left his remarkable mark on the orchestra of the girls of La Pietà, writing unparalleled music for them. He passed away in Vienna in 1741, but the echo of his personality still resonated 13 years later when Tiepolo's hand drew and illustrated the art of music, with the choir of the “ospealère” (hospital guests) and the significant presence of string, wind, and percussion instruments used by the female musicians.
Recent studies have identified a face peering out from Tiepolo's oval, with facial features resembling those of Antonio Vivaldi, complete with a thick head of red hair. This would have completed the remembrance of the composer and violinist among the female singers and instrumentalists of La Pietà.
