Pergolesi: L’Olimpiade Album Review – pacy hosting and impressively good production | Classical music

PIetro Metastasio’s story of scandals at the ancient Olympic Games became so popular that more than 60 composers set it to music, including Caldara (who wrote it), Vivaldi and Cherubini. Pergolesi’s version, begun in 1735, resurrected in 1937, is among the best, which would have been a great work if the composer had not died at the age of 26.

The story begins when the dangerous Megacle is forced to compete undercover as his hot head and not so honorable partner Licida. What Megacles doesn’t know is that the prize is the hand of Aristea, the woman he loved himself. Throw in Licida’s discarded mistress Argene posing as a shepherd and discovering that Licida is Aristea’s long-lost twin and you have all the makings of a mind-blowing plot.

Alessandro De Marchi wrote a four-hour historical drama in 2010, but Giulio Prandi’s two-and-a-half-hour unspoiled dots ensure that this drama flies by. The orchestration is excellent and Orchestra Ghislieri’s playing is strong and robust, although this recording lacks the depth of De Marchi’s account.

In a good performance, Carlotta Colombo appears as a very rounded Aristea, a perfect contrast to Silvia Frigato’s brooding Argene. Josè Maria Lo Monaco’s mezzo-soprano brings the right complexity to Licida, and Theodora Raftis Megacle a convincing youngster. The piece was created at the Teatro Pergolesi, an 18th-century theater in Jesi (Ancona) – Pergolesi’s hometown, in 2025. It also includes stage noise and intermittent applause, but still gives the impression of theater.

Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify