THE “PUTTE” OF VIVALDI – ANNA BON
In Venice in the eighteenth century the conservatories, born at the time of the Crusades as hostels for pilgrims, are transformed into orphanages and shelters to give a roof and a job to a large number of orphaned or abandoned girls. The "putte", which in Venetian dialect means "girls", later also called "daughters of the choir", are the foundlings who are hospitalized in these hospitals-conservatories. The most crowded and prestigious of all is Santa Maria della Pietà, where for seventeen years Antonio Vivaldi taught violin, who wrote many of his admirable sonatas and concerts such as the Estro harmonico precisely for the "putte".