L´Olimpiade

Dramma per musica in two acts
Libretto by Pietro Metastasio
Concert performance in Italian with German surtitle

Les Talens Lyriques
Conductor: Christophe Rousset

Sport, political theory and social criticism? Where, if not in an opera, could these three things be brought together? L’Olimpiade is one of the libretti by the grandmaster Metastasio that has been set to music most often. During the Olympic Games, two pairs of lovers must face many tough challenges, and not just sporting ones, before everything ultimately turns out well. Cimarosa wrote his opera in 1784 for the inauguration of the Teatro Eretenio in Vicenza. The quality of this setting means that it stands head and shoulders above the rest because the composer not only has considerable experience of comedy and tragedy to draw on, but also uses a musical language that already foreshadows the 19th century.