Reseña de The Olympic Games, 393-1896: the Survival of an Idea in European Literature (Critical Essay)

The Olympic Games, 393-1896: the Survival of an Idea in European Literature (Critical Essay) de Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature Resumen del Libro

On November 12, 2003, at the Athens Concert Hall and performing under the baton of Nikos Tsouchlos, the Virtuosi di Praga presented excerpts chosen from several different versions of Pietro Metastasio's magnificent 18th century libretto, L'Olympiade. The performance itself was a pastiche of homonymous operas written by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Paisiello, Jommelli, Traetta, Hasse, Myslivecek, and Caldara. So beautiful is Metastasio's libretto that the eminent poet Giosue Carducci once wrote that "all of the eighteenth century joined in acclaiming the divine L'Olympiade, in which the lyricism and the Italian songfulness joined in an unequalled and unattainable perfection" (903-04). Despite the magnificence, fame, and beauty of Metastasio's libretto, the work even today remains largely unknown. None of the established histories of the modern Olympic games, including histories of the arts festivals of even histories of music in the Olympics, acknowledge Metastasio's drama, a fact rendered even more surprising since, according to the renowned music historian, Charles Burney, "the settings and singings of Metastasio's verse rendered Pergolesi, Venci, Jommelli, Sacchinni, and Farinelli, Caffarelli, Pacchierotti, and Marchesi, as celebrated in all parts of Europe as Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire" (Vol. 3 301). To his credit, in his book, The First Modern Olympics, sport historian Richard Mandel at least identifies Pergolesi's overture, although he erroneously reports the title of the piece as L'Olympique (178). Where Mandel is also to be commended is in his effort to survey the history of the word 'Olympia,' especially as it appears in literature (29-32). But Mandel neither goes far enough in his quest nor does he attempt to theorize the ways in which literary references to the Olympic Games paved the way for Coubertin's particular, idiosyncratic Olympic construction.

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