L'Olimpiade (Mysliveček)

18th-century Italian operas in serious style are almost always set in a distant or legendary past and are built around historical, pseudo-historical, or mythological characters.

Metastasio's L'Olimpiade is highly exceptional in being named for an event, not a character, in this case a celebration of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece.

Megacle arrives in Sicyon just in time to enter the Olympic Games under the name of Licida, a friend who once saved his life.

Unknown to Megacle, Licida is in love with Aristea, whose hand is to be offered to the winner of the games by her father, King Clistene.

Licida, once betrothed to Princess Argene of Crete, is unaware that Megacle and Aristea already love each other, and he subsequently tells his friend of the prize.

Two arias drawn from the role of Argene in Mysliveček's L'Olimpiade are available in a collection recorded by the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená: "Più non si trovano" and "Che non mi disse."

The soloists include Pervin Chakar, Yasushi Watanabe, Erika Tanaka, Maria Teresa Leva, Carlo Vistoli, Saltan Akhmetova, and Pasquale Scircoli.