Antonio Vivaldi - L'Olimpiade (Alessandro De Marchi)

Information

Composer: Antonio Vivaldi

• L'Olimpiade, RV 725

Christian Senn; Margherita Maria Sala

Bejun Mehta; Raffaele Pe

Benedetta Mazzucato; Eleonora Bellocci; Luigi De Donato

Coro Maghini

Innsbrucker Festwochenorchester

Alessandro De Marchi, conductor

Date: 2026

Label: CPO

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Nearly three centuries ago, the celebrated librettist Pietro Metastasio drew inspiration from the Olympic Games to create L’Olimpiade, a dramatic poem whose formal perfection attracted more than seventy musical settings. Among the earliest was Antonio Vivaldi’s version, premiered to great success in Venice in 1734. The opera unfolds through a lively web of disguises, mistaken identities, oracles, and athletic competition for love, culminating in a guaranteed happy ending. This enduring theatrical appeal was reaffirmed at the Innsbruck Festival in 2023, where a new production—driven by the brilliance and vitality of Vivaldi’s music—was met with enthusiastic acclaim.

Alessandro De Marchi (b. 1962) is an acclaimed conductor and harpsichordist, known for his expertise in historically informed performance across a wide repertoire from the late Renaissance to contemporary music, with a focus on Baroque, Viennese Classicism, and bel canto. He has led major orchestras and opera houses across Europe, including the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker. From 1989 to 2018, he directed the Academia Montis Regalis, touring internationally. Since 2009, he has been artistic director of the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, where he also founded the Festival Orchestra, Cesti Competition, and the ‘Young Opera’ program for emerging vocal talent.