Cimarosa - L’Olimpiade
£24.65
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Label: Chateau de Versailles Spectacles
Cat No: CVS143
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 2
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 10th May 2024
Contents
Artists
Josh LovellRocio Perez
Marie Lys
Maite Beaumont
Mathilde Ortscheidt
Alex Banfield
Les Talens Lyriques
Conductor
Christophe RoussetWorks
L'OlimpiadeArtists
Josh LovellRocio Perez
Marie Lys
Maite Beaumont
Mathilde Ortscheidt
Alex Banfield
Les Talens Lyriques
Conductor
Christophe RoussetAbout
Born in 1749, Cimarosa was one of Europe's leading composers at the end of the 18th century. It was during his most productive period that he produced his Olimpiade, a grand opera seria transformed into a sumptuous bel canto drama. In it, Cimarosa brings heroism to the athletes competing in the Games in Olympia, the winner of which will marry Princess Aristea: the seemingly inextricable plot allows the composer to write some of the most extraordinary arias based on Metastasio's libretto. Christophe Rousset, champion of the Italian repertoire of the end of the 18th century, leads a dazzling cast in this hurricane of bel canto!
Cast:
- Clistene: Josh Lovell
- Aristea: Rocío Pérez
- Licida: Mathilde Ortscheidt
- Megacle: Maite Beaumont
- Argene: Marie Lys
- Aminta: Alex Banfield
Cast:
- Clistene: Josh Lovell
- Aristea: Rocío Pérez
- Licida: Mathilde Ortscheidt
- Megacle: Maite Beaumont
- Argene: Marie Lys
- Aminta: Alex Banfield
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Sinfonia
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2Act I Scene 1: Recitativo ‘Ho risoluto, Aminta’ (Licida, Aminta)
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3Act I Scene 1: Aria ‘Siam navi all’onde algenti’ (Aminta)
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4Act I Scene 2: Recitativo ‘Misero! E fui sì cieco’ (Licida. Megacle)
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5Act I Scene 2: Aria ‘Superbo di me stesso’ (Megacle)
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6Act I Scene 3: Recitativo ‘O generoso amico!’ (Licida, Aminta)
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7Act I Scene 3: Cavatina ‘O care selve’ (Argene)
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8Act I Scene 4 & 5: Recitativo ‘Ecco Aristea’ – Recitativo ‘Figlia, tutto è compito’ (Argene, Aristea, Clistene)
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9Act I Scene 5: Aria ‘Del destin non vi lagnate’ (Clistene)
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10Act I Scene 6: Recitativo ‘Udisti, o Principessa?’ (Argene, Aristea)
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11Act I Scene 6: Aria ‘Tu di saper procura’ (Aristea)
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12Act I Scene 7: Recitativo ‘Dunque Licida ingrato’ (Argene)
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13Act I Scene 7: Aria ‘Fra mille amanti un core’ (Argene)
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14Act I Scene 8: Recitativo ‘Licida. Amico.’ (Licida, Megacle)
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15Act I Scene 8: Cavatina ‘Mentre dormi’ (Licida)
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16Act I Scene 8: Accompagnato ‘Che intesi eterni Dei!’ (Megacle)
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17Act I Scene 9: Recitativo ‘Stranier? Chi mi sorprende?’ – Accompagnato ‘E mi lasci così?’ (Aristea, Megacle)
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18Act I Scene 9: Duetto ‘Ne’giorni tuoi felici’ (Megacle, Aristea)
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19Act II Scene 1: Recitativo ‘E trovar non poss’io’ (Argene, Aminta)
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20Act II Scene 1: Aria ‘In un cor, che fu piagato’ (Aminta)
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21Act II Scene 2: Recitativo ‘Questi d’un labbro infido’ (Argene, Aristea)
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22Act II Scene 3: Accompagnato ‘Io compiango il tuo duol’ (Aristea) – Aria ‘Grandi, è ver, son le tue pene’ (Aristea)
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23Act II Scene 4 – Scene 5: Recitativo ‘Giovane valoroso’ – Recitativo ‘All’odiose nozze’ (Clistene, Megacle, Licida, Aristea)
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24Act II Scene 5: Aria ‘Bell’alme innamorate’ (Clistene)
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25Act II Scene 6 – Scene 7: Recitativo ‘Fra l’amico e l’amante’ – Recitativo ‘Oh, ricordi crudeli!’ – Accompagnato ‘Senti... Ah, no... Dove vai?’ – Accompagnato ‘Misero me, che veggo’ (Megacle, Licida, Aristea)
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26Act II Scene 8: Accompagnato ‘Intense tutto, Aristea ?’ (Licida, Mehacle)
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27Act II Scene 8: Aria ‘Se cerca, se dice’ (Megacle)
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28Act II Scene 9 – Scene 10 – Scene 11 – Scene 12: Recitativo ‘Che labirinto è questo’ – Recitativo ‘A me, barbaro ?’ – Recitativo ‘In angustia più fiera’ – Recitativo ‘Difendetemi il padre’ (Licida, Argene, Aristea, Clistene)
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29Act II Scene 13: Recitativo ‘Eppur, mi fa pietade...’ (Aristea, Licida)
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30Act II Scene 13: Aria ‘Torbido il ciel s’oscura’ (Licida)
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31Act II Scene 14: Recitativo ‘Giusti Dei! Che sarà’ (Aristea, Megacle)
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32Act II Scene 14: Accompagnato ‘Qual poter, qual incanto’ (Aristea)
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33Act II Scene 14: Aria ‘Mi sento, oh Dio! Nel core’ (Aristea)
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34Act II Scene 15: Recitativo ‘Stelle, vi sono in cielo’ (Argene, Aminta)
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35Act II Scene 15: Aria ‘Spiegar non posso appieno’ (Argene)
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36Act II Scene 16: Accompagnato ‘Giovane sventurato!’ (Clistene, Licida)
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37Act II Scene 16: Aria ‘Non so donde viene’ (Clistene)
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38Act II Scene 17: Recitativo ‘Ah, vieni, illustre esempio’ (Licida, Megacle, Clistene, Aristea)
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39Act II Scene 17: Accompagnato ‘Ah barbari fermate!’ (Megacle)
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40Act II Scene 17: Aria ‘Nel lasciarti’ (Megacle, Aristea, Clistene, Licida)
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41Act II Final Scene: Recitativo ‘Fermati, o Re’ (Argene, Clistene, Aminta, Licida)
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42Act II Final Scene: Finale ‘Quanto mai, per sì gran dono’ (Clistene, Licida, Megacle, Aistea, Argene, Aminta)
Europadisc Review
For their latest release on the Chateau de Versailles Spectacles label, Christophe Rousset and his Talens Lyriques ensemble turn not to the Baroque delights of Lully featured on their previous titles, but to a classical opera seria of Italian provenance. With the 2024 Paris Olympics just a couple of months away, they explore Metastasio’s tale set in Ancient Greece at the time of the original Olympic Games. L’Olimpiade was first set to music by Caldara in 1733 (for performance in Vienna), and was soon taken up by many other composers, among them Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Hasse, Piccinni, Cherubini, Paisiello, and even the young Donizetti (1817, incomplete). One of the most successful settings was by Domenico Cimarosa, composed for the opening of the Teatro Eriteo in Vicenza in July 1784, which went on to enjoy a good two decades in the operatic repertoire – an astonishingly lengthy time for the period.
Today, Cimarosa is best known for his later comic opera Il matrimonio segreto (1792), but his earlier works in the genre – both comic and serious – had already established him as a force to be reckoned with, and he was frequently compared favourably with his younger contemporary, Mozart. Listening to this vibrant new recording – made last December in Paris’s Salle Colonne – it’s not hard to hear why Cimarosa was so acclaimed. There’s an ease of inventiveness and variety of forms – from secco and accompagnato recitatives (the former enlivened by the fortepiano, played by Rousset himself here) to short- and long-form arias, duets and ensembles – and a sure way with pacing. The recitatives are much reduced from Metastasio’s original, as is the number of arias, giving the whole two-act structure a compact feel at under two-and-a-half hours.
The plot itself involves the Olympics only peripherally: the Athenian athlete Megacle enters to win the hand of Aristea on behalf of his friend, Licida, though he loves her himself. Licida is (unknowingly) the banished son of King Clistene, and thus Aristea’s brother. When the truth is finally revealed, Licida returns to his former beloved, the long-suffering but forgiving Argene. Cimarosa’s setting of Metastasio’s text (itself based on Herodotus and Pausanias) refocuses the attention on the central love story of Aristea and Megacle, and these two roles were originally taken by Vicenza’s star attractions, soprano Francesca Lebrun (née Franziska Dorothea Danzi) and castrato Luigi Marchesi. Here they are splendidly sung by soprano Rocío Pérez (dazzling in the high coloratura passages of the Act 1 duet ‘Ne’giorni tuoi felici’ and her Act 2 aria with obbligato oboe, ‘Mi sento, oh Dio! Nel core’) and mezzo-soprano Maite Beaumont, who matches Pérez in agility and brings a poise and nobility to the character.
Mezzo Mathilde Ortscheidt and soprano Marie Lys are the other couple, Licida and Argene, the former having a velvety warmth of tone which brings much sympathy to the role, while Lys is impassioned as the deserted Argene (as in her agitated Act 2 aria ‘Spiegar non posso appieno’). As the irascible Clistene, Canadian tenor Josh Lovell sometimes sounds a little nasal and discomfited, but is a match for the role’s demanding lines where it matters, and the other tenor, Alex Banfield as the servant Aminta, makes the most of his two act-opening arias.
Alongside Pérez and Beaumont, top honours go to Rousset and his orchestra. They really know how to energise this music, which moves away from the da capo structures of the Baroque to the cantabile–cabaletta model (slow–fast) that was to dominate the 19th century. They match animation with a poised stylishness that negates the shortcomings of the plot and brings out all the inventiveness and freshness of Cimarosa’s music, by turns moving and exhilarating. If you know any of the earlier settings of Metastasio’s text (especially Vivaldi, Pergolesi and Hasse), you’ll certainly want to hear Cimarosa’s more classically-tinged take on it. No matter that the Olympic element in L’Olimpiade is rather marginal: any excuse to hear this tremendously engaging music is to be welcomed, and this recording (the only one in the catalogue, and apparently a world-premiere) is a winner. Recorded sound and supporting documentation are excellent. Medals to all concerned!
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