He studied music first with his father, a good violinist in the ducal chapel of St. Mark’s, and then with Legrenzi. Ordained a priest on 20 March 1703, in September he was appointed to the violin chair at the musical seminary, known as the Conservatory, of the Ospitale della Pietà, the most highly regarded artistic centre in the city. Confirmed in his post in 1711 and 1713, in 1715 he succeeded Gasparini as director of the choir. Little is known of the period that followed; in 1739 he was again in Venice and in the summer of 1741 he was in Vienna, where he died.
Among his vast output of instrumental and operatic music, his sacred works had been the most neglected, owing to the loss of the sources. These have now come to light thanks to the gift made to the National Library in Turin by the Foa and Giordano families, who had preserved them, of seven precious manuscript volumes containing numerous sacred compositions by A. V. alto, a delicately wrought and highly lyrical motet for soprano and strings, the Credo for four-part choir, organ and orchestra, with strongly dramatic colouring and solid contrapuntal construction; and the Gloria in eleven parts for two sopranos, alto, choir and instruments, in which Vivaldi’s art reaches heights not seen again. Alongside his religious works must be placed Juditha triumphans, Sacrum militare oratorium, which, lacking the character of a historical figure, is essentially a sacred melodrama on a Latin text, in which the figure of Judith is portrayed with powerful dramatic intensity and noble sweetness.