L'Olimpiade (Mysliveček)

L'Olimpiade is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio that was first performed in 1733. For a performance in the 1770s, it would only be expected that a libretto of such age would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste; some of the original aria texts would be omitted or substituted, and the remaining aria texts would be set more expansively. In this case, only 14 of the original 18 aria texts of Metastasio were newly set to music. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1778 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable.