WHO WILL WIN VIVALDI’S GAME OF LOVE AND LIES?
High stakes all the way but the real winners in this five-star L’Olimpiade are the splendid performers
‘Imposes huge demands on the singers and the orchestra’
Internationaltour
Until June 1
★★★★★
Vivaldi’s baroque operas are distinctly different from the work of the classical and romantic eras, and Irish National Opera has done an admirable job in resurrecting three of them in the last four years in their essentially original format – allowing that constant alterations were always par for the course in the baroque world.
L’Olimpiade, from 1734, is set at the time of the ancient Olympics. This production has seven exceptional singers, 10 members of the Irish Baroque orchestra, and a complicated story that includes elements of farce, heartbreak, attempts at suicide and assassination, along with anguish and a happy ending helped by an imported Greek steal from the story of Oedipus.
The pounding insistence of Vivaldi’s music with its strong emotional aspects made it a huge success originally, despite competition from other composers who tackled the same libretto. But after Vivaldi’s death, composers from Mozart to Wagner expanded operatic concepts and it was the mid-20 Century before Vivaldi was rediscovered in all his forms,
including his Four Seasons.
L’Olimpiade imposes huge demands on the singers and the orchestra who all have to go at full throttle for almost three hours, with just one break. The maze of misunderstanding is launched when Licida, a useless athlete, saves the life of Megacle, an athletic superstar. In gratitude Megacle stands in for Licida at the Olympics and wins. It’s a cheat of course. The prize is the king’s much-sought-after daughter, Aristea. Problem is, the wrong guy can now marry her, and there’s commotion and anger at criminal double-dealing, followed by grief all round.
Much of the opera consists of long sung narration telling the main story with some longer developed arias about individual joys and tribulations.
The whole ensemble make a memorable team, with Chinese counter-tenor Meili Li very impressive in his range and tone as Licida, contrasting with the forceful soprano of Rachel Redmond as coach and tutor, and the equally forceful Seán Boylan as the king’s confidant. Mezzo Gemma Ní Bhriain was an admirable Megacle, who shares the emotional anguish caused by his deceit in winning Aristea (a splendid Alexandra Urquiola). And I would gladly have heard more from Chuma Sijeqa’s king and Sarah Richmond’s betrayed Argene.
The choreography is beautifully and wittily directed by Daisy Evans and Matthew Forbes, and conductor Peter Whelan delivers a memorable evening with the vibrantly alert orchestra.