Organization

Conductor

Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Tenor

Riccardo Novaro

Clistene

Contralto

Ambroisine Bré

Aristea

Soprano

Chiara Skerath

Megacle

Carlo Vistoli

Licida

Anna Aglatova

Aminta

Bass

Niall Anderson

Alcandro

Libretto

Pietro Trapassi

Singer

Margaret Maria Sala

Marlène Assayag

Peter Kellner

Benedetta Mazzucato

Argene

MusikTheater an der Wien

Others

Ensemble Matheus

Italian

L'olimpiade -  (The Olympiad)

Vienna

Austria

Theater an der Wien

L'olimpiade Vivaldi

Public

The Olympiad

Approved

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 disguised as the shepherdess Licori is part of the party ... 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.L'Olimpiade 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.

English

The Olympiad by Vivaldi, From (2022/2022), Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues