Vivaldi A. – La Senna Festeggiante – Sinfonia

The opening symphony of a serenade dedicated by Vivaldi to the King of France in an arrangement for string orchestra

La Senna Festeggiante is a serenade by Antonio Vivaldi on a libretto by Domenico Lalli.

Written for three voices, orchestra, and basso continuo, it was staged for the first time presumably in 1726 in Venice, and was dedicated to the King of France, Louis XV. In fact, at that time the musical relations between Venice and France were very close, so much so that Vivaldi himself dedicated other compositions to the French sovereign, such as the Te Deum and another serenade, The Union of Peace and Sea.

Lalli's libretto, not particularly original, has a short-lived plot, with a very thin subject and a static story, and numerous references to the courtly fashion of the time.

However, Vivaldi found there, as in other texts by the same author, a large number of ideas both from the musical point of view and from the level of images., as we can see from the opening Sinfonia which is presented here in a version for string orchestra.