The Instrumentalist

The Ospedale della Pietà was a convent and charitable organization in Venice founded during the 14th century. Initially a hospice for those without funds to pay for their own care, it was one of four, large Ospedales (residential institutions) built to provide services to the city’s under-resourced, ill, and unhoused populations. By the 18th century, it had morphed into the orphanage and music school depicted in The Instrumentalist. The Pietà received unwanted infants through a scafetta, a small window only large enough to admit newborns. Some of the infants were, like Anna Maria, children of women unable to provide for them. Others were, like Elizabetta Marcini’s young daughter, the children of the wealthy born of “troubled” circumstances, such as extra-marital relationships or sexual assault.

Both male and female infants were accepted, and all children received a high-quality education and began apprenticeship to a particular trade at the age of 10. Beginning in the mid-16th century, girls who demonstrated musical talent were given additional musical training and a position in the figlie di coro, the Pietà’s all-female orchestra. The orchestra was renowned as one of the best in Europe, and its concerts generated a considerable amount of income for the Pietà. Concerts were given on-site in the Pietà’s chapel, but the girls also traveled to perform at other, outside locations at the behest of the Pietà’s wealthy donors.