L'Olimpiade, Royal Opera House review ★★★★★

As Handel operas once were, so Vivaldi operas are today.

The former, once rarely performed, are now ubiquitous. While Vivaldi’s Four Seasons may have been the planet’s most popular piece of historical music for decades, his many operas – he claimed to have written 94 and scores of about 20 still survive – are still mostly waiting to be explored.

More power then to Irish National Opera who scored a palpable hit and an Olivier Award with their production of Vivaldi’s Bajazet in 2022 and are now touring a new production of his L’Olympiade. Written for the Venice Carnival of 1734, the story is set at the Olympics in Ancient Greece, where the victor wins not only a laurel wreath but the hand of the King’s daughter, Aristea (sung by the Cuban-American mezzo, Alexandra Urquiola, with vocal hints of Carmen, a role which she also sings).

Chuma Sijega as Clistene and Alexandra Urquiola as his daughter, Aristea. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Licida, the ambitious anti-hero of the opera, is played by Chinese countertenor Meili Li, exquisite in his first act aria, 'Mentre dormi amor fomenti'. No athlete himself, Licida persuades his friend Megacle to impersonate him at the games and win Aristea for him. The plot twist is that, unknown to Licida, Megacle and Aristea are already in love and Megacle is faced with the classic love-versus-duty dilemma.

This summary only hints at the complexities of the plot which are many and various. Licida and Arsitea are revealed, for example (fortunately before they marry), to be connected in another way.... Everyone reverts to their true loves in time for the traditional happy ending.

Director Daisy Evans helps us keep up with who is in love with whom at any given moment, greatly helped by the inventiveness of movement director, Matthew Forbes, who can portray a drowning man being rescued at sea or the Olympic pentathlon with equal aplomb. Designer Molly O’Cathain produced a simple, elegant set – a shiny black floor with a set of dividing semi-circular steps – crowned by a wonderfully dramatic circle of light (lighting designer Jake Wiltshire).

Peter Whelan directs from the keyboard. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Irish Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Peter Whelan from the harpsichord, tears into the overture with enormous energy and plays vividly, creating as many orchestral colours as is possible to produce with just seven string players, a lute and a bassoon. The hard-working cast of seven singers never leaves the stage, doubling as supers, dancers and scene-shifters when they aren’t in character, and, in a cast without a weak link, Rachel Redmond, Sarah Richmond, Chuma Sijeqa and Séan Boylan all made significant vocal contributions.

Despite all this, the temperature of the evening rarely rises from a gentle simmer to a vigorous boil. The company had the misfortune on opening night to suffer illness, both on stage and in the audience. Gemma Ní Bhriain, playing the central role of Megacle, was unwell but gamely saved the performance by acting the part while Maria Schellenberg sang her music from the pit. Ní Bhriain almost brought off the impossible task of making us forget that she wasn’t singing.

But not quite. Vivaldi operas are all about singing – incredibly virtuosic singing at that, and the vocal line in a Venetian opera should have more decorations than the Doge’s Palace. Here, the decorations were understated and every aria finished dispiritingly on a low note, more Lent than Carnevale in excitement. Even the sparkling soprano Rachel Redmond, who had the most bravura arias in the score and was just itching to stop the show, was denied both cadenzas and top notes to crown her arias.

The conductor and director need to know that applause does not have to be actively suppressed in opera in order for the drama to be taken seriously.

---

L'Olimpiade is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Further performances are on 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25 May. Click here to book