Stephan MacLeod conductor
Sophie Junker Euridice
Marie Perbost Amore
Iestyn Davies Orfeo

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice, first performed in Italian in Vienna in 1762, is Gluck’s most famous opera. It is also the work whose libretto marks a decisive break in the history of music with the conventions of opera seria that then prevailed in both Italy and Austria. The plot is mythological rather than historical, and it abandons the political and romantic entanglements characteristic of the genre. The number of characters is reduced from six to three.
In return — as in Rameau’s operas, with which it shares more than one affinity — the chorus gains in importance and, together with the ballet, becomes fully integrated into the drama. Finally, instead of the traditional alternation between recitative that advances the action and reflective arias that follow, the opera now unfolds in large, coherent scenes. The revolution is immense. And yet Gluck is often perceived today as a figure of absolute, immovable classicism. A mistake — or a paradox? In any case, this Orfeo stands as one of the greatest masterpieces of Western culture.
An opera in concert version is not an opera without theatre — quite the opposite. Singers accustomed to the form know that the absence of sets, costumes and backstage machinery compels them, together with the orchestra and its conductor, to experience and convey the drama with even greater intensity than in the theatre. And this very often results — all the more so with such outstanding soloists — in truly magnificent evenings.