As part of Baroque Spring, a month long season of Baroque music and culture, Donald Macleod explores the life and works of Vivaldi.

Vivaldi met the singer Anna Giro during a trip to Mantua and they quickly became inseparable. He wrote role after role for her, and they toured for months at a time, putting on operas as they went, with Anna in the starring role. According to Vivaldi's librettist, she "did not have a beautiful voice, nor was she a great musician, but she was pretty and attractive, she acted well and had protectors: one needs nothing more to deserve the role of a prima donna.". Show less