Vivaldi Mkv

With Olimpiade the famous poet Metastasio created one of the most popular librettos of the 18th century. It was set to music by over 60 baroque and classical composers including Vivaldi, Caldara, Hasse, Cimarosa and Donizetti. Pergolesi’s composition from 1735 was one of the earliest adaptations.
In the 2011 Jesi production of L’Olimpiade a large part of the auditorium is taken up by a cross-shaped platform. This is where the characters of the drama are introduced, where they elaborate their plans and express their innermost feelings, their sufferings and hopes, while the supreme ritual of the ancient Greek world, the Olympic Games, is celebrated on a distant stage: that event upon which their lives – and all prospects of happiness or otherwise – depend.

When Yes joined forces with a symphony orchestra for the first time on their 2001 studio album, Magnification, the most common reaction was probably "I thought they'd done it already," since the legendary outfit's cerebral, progressive rock had frequently seemed more steeped in classical music than rock itself. But, as if to prove that they are in fact a rock band, the almost seminal lineup of Yes – Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, minus ever-mercurial keyboardist Rick Wakeman – subsequently took to the concert trail accompanied by the European Festival Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Keitel, for a tour during which they wisely mixed just a smattering of new songs in among many of their most beloved '70s masterworks…