Beautiful music, beautiful singing, a revelation
Despite it having one of the most convoluted plots of any opera, Pietro Metastasio's L'Olimpiade was one of the most popular texts for Baroque composers. Originally set to music by Antonio Caldara in 1733, it was most notably followed by Vivaldi's version in 1734 and Pergolesi's in 1735, but the libretto has also been set around 60 times by composers such as Hasse, Galuppi, Jommelli, Cimarosa and Piccinni. Thanks to the Fondazione Pergolesi-Spontini's initiative to revive and release recorded performances of all the composer's operas in new critical editions, we finally have the opportunity to see Pergolesi's version of this immense work and it is something of a revelation. Not only is it one of Pergolesi's most beautiful works with perhaps the finest musical and singing performances we've seen yet from Jesi, but it also turns out to be one of the best settings of L'Olimpiade that exists.
All of Pergolesi's works released on Blu-ray so far have been given very strong...
A True Gem.......the Composer's Best
It is not often that I am in general agreement with my colleague critic Keris Nine, but in our assessment of Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade I am fully sympathetic to her analysis. L'Olimpiade is by far the true gem of a masterpiece of his four opera seria. Each one shows that his inherent genius had to overcome some awkwardness or mannerism of the opera seria style. And each one shows the progress to the mastery of his own talent. It should be noted that all were composed under very difficult situations, often in great haste,and none were immediately deemed successes. The three preceding opera seria: Salustia, Il Prigioniero Superbo and Adriano in Sirio are all now available in excellent recent performances (sponsored by the Pergolesi/Spontini Foundation)with period instruments and very accomplished singers and performers. The present work is an outstanding composition and certainly represents the high point of the Italian Baroque Style. The melodic writing uses delicate tone colors, smooth...
Melodrama In Three Acts Full of Surprises
This is the first time I have seen L'Olimpiade. I will watch it again.
The performance was conducted by Alessandro De Marchi and sung by Raul Gimenez, Lyubov Petrova and Yetzabel Arias Fernandez. Enjoy.
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