When writing the pasticcio Il Tamerlano in 1735 for the Venice carnival, Antonio Vivaldi made use of a musical ruse: He gives the sultan Bajazet and the Ottomans his own arias in the Venetian style, while the “barbarians”, the Tartars led by Tamerlano, sing arias in the Neapolitan style of his younger rivals Johann Adolf Hasse, Riccardo Broschi and Geminiano Giacomelli. What Vivaldi intended as a dig at his rivals provides today’s listeners with unadulterated musical pleasure. And Ottavio Dantone, who has assembled a first-class ensemble for Il Tamerlano, provides a magnificent rendition of baroque music of every style with his Accademia Bizantina.

Concert performance

In Italian with surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before the performance