The music of three serenatas by Vivaldi has come down to us. The Italian serenata is a small form of opera, but it was not performed on the opera stage, but in a private setting, ideally outdoors.

The Serenata a 3, RV 690, is the least known and in some ways the most enigmatic of these three serenatas. The only surviving source is the autograph manuscript of the score, which is kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria of Turin.

It is about the nymph Eurilla, who wants to win the love of the attractive shepherd Alcindo by dishonest means with the help of her companion Nice. What begins like a shepherd's idyll ends dramatically with the call to kill Alcindo.