Olimpie is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut, is based on the play of the same name by Voltaire (1761). Olimpie was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 22 December 1819.
The Parisian premiere of Olimpie was a failure since audiences found its libretto too old-fashioned. Spontini revised the opera for performances in Berlin with the help of E.T.A. Hoffmann, who provide...
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Olimpie is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut, is based on the play of the same name by Voltaire (1761). Olimpie was first performed at the Paris Opéra on 22 December 1819.
The Parisian premiere of Olimpie was a failure since audiences found its libretto too old-fashioned. Spontini revised the opera for performances in Berlin with the help of E.T.A. Hoffmann, who provided a German translation of the libretto. This version was first staged at the Königliches Opernhaus on 14 May 1821, where it was a success. Olimpie calls for huge orchestral forces (including the first use of the ophicleide) and spectacular effects. In the finale of the Berlin version, Cassandre rode in on a live elephant. Thus, like Fernand Cortez, the work prefigures later French Grand Opera.
Antigone, King of Greece, and Cassandre, King of Macedon, have been implicated in Alexander's murder. They have also been at war with one another but...
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