Win tickets to the world premiere of The Secret Life of Vivaldi

Martin Weitz

This month we catch up with St Andrew’s resident, Martin Weitz, long-term member of the Friends of St Andrew’s Park and my old neighbour! On this occasion we are not discussing the park but instead I heard all about Martin’s forthcoming play The Secret Life of Vivaldi. Martin is an award-winning TV, radio and film director, and producer, journalist and now playwright. It was great to hear all about this new production, starring Game of Thrones and Star Wars actor, Miltos Yerolemou, which will premiere in Bristol this spring. We have two tickets to give away to the show so do take part in the competition at the end of this interview.

Can you share with us some of the stand-out projects you have worked on during your career?
My first job in TV was working on the set of Coronation Street in Manchester, as a callboy – mixing with the stars of Corrie, laughing at the jokes of Bet Lynch, who was quite outrageous, chatting to Ena Sharples and Len Fairclough; this has always stayed with me as a key moment in my career.
Meeting the extraordinary savant, Daniel Tammet, for the first time and watching him do a massive calculation, to over a hundred decimal places in seconds, was mind-blowing. Later, my film about him, The Boy with the Incredible Brain, was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Royal Television Society best documentary prize, sold to over 100 countries and was even shown on British Airways flights!
Getting my first book Health Shock published and visiting nearly every major radio station up and down the UK to tell the world about it. Seeing my thriller The Elena Text at the number one spot on an Amazon best seller list! It didn’t make a me fortune but it was very exciting to see at the top spot for a few weeks.
Winning the Sony Gold Award at a big banquet in London for my BBC Radio 4 series The Evacuation: the true story – which contained revelations about what really happened to many children evacuated during WW2.

What inspired you to write a play about Vivaldi?
2025 is the 300th anniversary of his most famous work The Four Seasons – which has become the most popular classical music in the world. Like many people I have found this a remarkable and highly exciting piece of music, going from great moments of happiness to despair in seconds. So, I was interested in finding out about the genius behind the music and, when I read a summary of his life story, I realised it was full of great unanswered mysteries. I suggested that I try and write a play about it to my friend Roger Huckle, Music Director of the Bristol Ensemble, a play which featured Vivaldi’s music and told the truth about his rollercoaster life story, and here we are now, ready for curtains up!

How is Vivaldi’s world-renowned classical music brought to life in the play?
I wanted to combine the drama of a play within a musical concert – which is very rarely done. I am delighted that Bristol’s professional orchestra, the Bristol Ensemble, is providing the wonderful music, perfectly complemented by the voices of Bristol’s virtuosic choir, The Fitzhardinge Consort.

Miltos Yerolemou

Were you involved with the casting and are you delighted with Miltos Yerolemou taking on the role as Vivaldi?
Yes – I was very fortunate in being introduced by a family friend (the actor, David Ricardo Pierce, who currently plays Harry Potter on the London stage) to a fellow actor, Miltos Yerolemou, with whom he had toured in Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Bristol Old Vic. When Roger Huckle and I first met Miltos, we knew immediately he would make a perfect Vivaldi. We both felt he had the just the right combination of pathos, emotion and searing enthusiasm, which historic documents from the 18th century tell us about the character of Vivaldi.
Can you give us a brief synopsis of the journey the play takes you through of Vivaldi’s life?
We follow Vivaldi’s life story through the four seasons of his life. From Spring – with his birth, when he almost died, to the Summer of his life – when he is as the height of his fame and most prolific time as a composer. Then comes the Autumn of his life when Vivaldi’s music starts to go out of fashion and he is no longer getting many commissions, and then finally onto his Winter and his shocking demise, when he dies in poverty in Vienna, far away from his home.
He is born into a poor Italian family but is taught violin by his father who works as a baker, barber and musician. Vivaldi writes a stunning mass at the age of only 13 and studies to become a priest because it will give him a job and respectability in Venice. He gets a job teaching music at a well-known Italian orphanage – famous for its orchestra and choir – the Pieta della ospidale, where he writes some of his first choral works especially for the girls of the orphanage.
After losing his job he starts to write music for the nobility, and later begins writing operas – he has huge successes followed by massive failures. His music is hailed as revolutionary and he is declared ‘the greatest composer in Europe’ but he still feels rejected by the rich patricians of Venice. The priest Vivaldi has a close relationship with his prima donna, Anna Giro; there is much gossip and rumour, which causes a scandal, but he just survives. Fortunately, he is much admired outside of Italy and when his work dries up at home, Emperor Charles VI of Austria invites him to work in Vienna – and he never returns to Venice. A tragic accident speeds his demise.

When does it premiere and how do people get tickets?
The world premiere of The Secret Life of Vivaldi is on Saturday 12 April, 7.30pm at St George’s Bristol Concert Hall, Bristol.
Tickets are available from www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk and www.bristolensemble.com

Reader Competition!
To be in with a chance of winning two tickets to this concert, please email the answer to the below question, with title ‘Vivaldi Competition’ to, kerry@bishopstonmatters.co.uk, before the closing date of 6 March 2025.
Q: Which of Vivaldi’s composed work is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year?