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Pergolesi: L’Olimpiade album review
This is a review of a new recording of Pergolesi's opera L'Olimpiade, based on Pietro Metastasio's popular libretto about love, disguise and mistaken identity at the ancient Olympic Games. The recording, conducted by Giulio Prandi with the Orchestra Ghislieri, is praised for its brisk pacing and strong cast, offering a lively account of a rarely heard baroque work by a composer who died young at 26 before he could fulfil his operatic promise.
Metastasio's convoluted tale of disguised competitors, love triangles and a long-lost twin was set by more than 60 composers, including Caldara, Vivaldi and Cherubini, but Pergolesi's 1735 version is considered among the finest. Recorded live in 2025 at the 18th-century Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, the composer's hometown, Prandi's two-and-a-half-hour edit trims an earlier four-hour recording by Alessandro De Marchi to keep the drama moving, aided by sinewy, tightly sprung orchestral playing. The cast, including Carlotta Colombo as Aristea, Silvia Frigato as Argene, Josè Maria Lo Monaco as Licida and Theodora Raftis as Megacle, is singled out for praise, though the live recording includes some audible stage noise and applause.
In short
- Review praises new recording of Pergolesi's rarely performed opera L'Olimpiade
- Conductor Giulio Prandi trims epic four-hour original to a pacy 2.5 hours
- Strong cast recorded live in 2025 at Pergolesi's hometown theatre in Jesi
Explained simply
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an 18th-century Italian composer of considerable talent who died at the young age of 26. Despite his short life, he left behind several important operas, of which L'Olimpiade, composed in 1735, is one of the most significant. The opera's libretto was written by Pietro Metastasio, one of the most celebrated opera writers of the period.
The plot concerns the ancient Olympic Games and involves a tangled story of disguised competitors, mistaken identities and romantic complications. Metastasio's libretto was so successful that over 60 composers adapted it for music, among them Vivaldi and Cherubini, though Pergolesi's version is considered one of the finest. His opera demonstrates the dramatic and musical sophistication he might have achieved had he lived longer.
Pergolesi's operas are rarely performed or recorded in the modern era, making new recordings of his major works valuable for anyone interested in 18th-century Italian opera. A fresh recording of L'Olimpiade therefore offers a chance to experience one of the composer's most ambitious creations and evaluate his contribution to the operatic tradition.