L'Olimpiade - Schedule, Program & Tickets

L'Olimpiade

Dramma per musica in three acts (1734)
Music by Antonio Vivaldi
Libretto by Pietro Metastasio, edited by Bartolomeo Vitturi
Concert performance in Italian

Musical director Jean-Christophe Spinosi
Clistene, King of Sicyon Riccardo Novaro
Aristea, his daughter Ambroisine Bré
Argene Benedetta Mazzucato
Megacle, lover of Aristeas Chiara Skerath
Licida, supposed son of the King of Crete Carlo Vistoli
Aminta, educator of Licidas Ana Aglatova
Alcandro, confidante of Clistenes Niall Anderson
Orchestra Ensemble Matheus

A bitter intrigue overshadows the Olympic thought and also the hoped-for victory in one of Pietro Metastasio's most famous librettos: The Cretan prince Licida asks his friend Megacle from Athens to take part in the Olympic Games under his name. When Megacle learns that the winner of the games will be married to the king's daughter Aristea, he finds himself in a moral dilemma, because Aristea is the woman he has loved for a long time. But out of loyalty to his friend, Megacle competes in the games and wins. After the victory, the confusion for Aristea is perfect: She believes that she can be happy with Megacle now, but he reveals to her that he has won the games for a friend - Aristea must now marry Licida. But Licida also has a lover, the Cretan lady Argene, who disguises herself as the shepherdess Licori ... After all, the conflicts over love, friendship and even a prodigal son can be happily resolved. The original couples find each other and are allowed to spend their future lives together in the desired constellation. Since 1730 as court poet for Emperor Karl VI. Pietro Metastasio, who worked in Vienna and was buried in the Michaelerkirche, was certainly the most famous librettist of his time. He wrote the story about the real value of victory and defeat in 1733 for his colleague, the court composer Antonio Caldara. Antonio Vivaldi - musical director and composer in residence at the Teatro Sant’Angelo in his hometown of Venice since 1726 - received the turbulent libretto in the same year. In an arrangement by Bartolomeo Vitturi and with new music by Vivaldi, L’Olimpiade was premiered at the end of the carnival season on February 17, 1734 in the Teatro Sant’Angelo. However, the star of what was once Europe's most famous musician was sinking - contemporaries judged the music of L’Olimpiade to be rather unfashionable, and indeed the 1730s brought a musical style change. For us today this is irrelevant as L’Olimpiade is a musically rousing Vivaldi who grippingly conveys the shimmering atmosphere between the altar and the arena.


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