Not many think of Vivaldi as an opera composer, focussing mostly on his concerti and church music, but we have 50 surviving operas of an alleged 94.
Bajazet was premiered in Verona in 1735. Each Scene has a recitative and aria, with around ten per Act, and three Acts.
As it’s quite long, Vivaldi recycled a lot of music, including borrowing some from other composers.
He also recycled his own music in other operas, such as Winter from The Four Seasons as an aria in the opera Farnace, sung by a father whose son has died and ‘ice runs through my veins’:
and Spring as a jolly chorus in Dorilla in Tempe:
Irish National Opera put on a production at Covent Garden recently that won Outstanding Achievement in Opera Award at the Olivier Awards – a trailer is here:
I’ve given you a selection rather than the whole thing, but interestingly it leaves out the most famous aria (Sposa son disprezzata), which isn’t by Vivaldi, but by Geminiano Giacomelli in his opera La Merope composed the year before – you can hear it separately here:
Listening Project 