VENICE-O-METER 8
Historical short story set in Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà orphanage for girls, and focusing on the interactions between the institution’ most famous composer, Vivaldi, and the young women who played his music.
If this work’s description sounds familiar, that’s probably because its theme is exactly the same as Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick and Stabat Mater by Tiziano Scarpa. However, Banti’s text predates both — it was first published in 1951 — even though it is the least famous of the three. When Scarpa’s novel won the prestigious Strega prize in 2009, some did point out the similarities between the two works.
Of the three it is, in my opinion, the only one that has any literary value and psychological subtlety.
My main frustration with this short story is that I can’t identify the location of the musicians’ outing in the Zattere area, which the entire narrative hinges on. Banti gives very few clues — there’s a garden, and those are uncommon in Venice — but the elusiveness of the place is consistent with a story that’s about a disappearance, about unfulfilled potential and about secrets. The locations that are named, and Lavinia’s key boat ride, can be found on the Reading Venice Map.
Reading Venice 