#the-four-seasons

#the-four-seasons

Upon its debut in 1725, The Four Sea­sons stunned lis­ten­ers by telling a sto­ry with­out the help of a human voice. Vival­di drew on four exist­ing son­nets (pos­si­bly of his own prove­nance), using strings to paint a nar­ra­tive filled with spring thun­der­storms, summer's swel­ter, autum­nal hunts and har­vests, and the icy winds of win­ter. The com­pos­er stud­ded his score with pre­cise­ly placed lines from the son­nets, to con­vey his expec­ta­tions that the musi­cians would use their instru­ments to son­i­cal­ly embody the expe­ri­ences being described.

We never did get a straight answer as to why it was unavailable in the first place, but it's not that uncommon for decades-old movies to slip through the streaming cracks.

Alda's role as a male feminist and his contributions to gender equality are now juxtaposed against themes of misogyny present in his film, The Four Seasons.