Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

Read the small print. A recording of the original 1762 Orfeo with Jaroussky would no doubt be welcome but this isn't it. Instead it's a mixed version for Naples in 1774, with Orfeo transposed for soprano castrato (Jaroussky copes well) and Act 3 in particular expanded with the music of other composers. Interesting and pretty well performed but don't be taken in.

Excellent recording of Gluck’s original Version of Orfeo and Euridice. I bought this because Jaroussky is my favourite counter tenor and he does not disappoint. Rest of cast very good too. Arrived in good condition and well packaged.

Sublime

If you want the best counter tenor of this moment then this is the CD to buy. The two soloist blend together perfectly and the recording quality is not preventing the enjoyment either. Highly recommended if you want an opera that is light and fluffy, especially for newbees. Of course the images are not there to support the singing but it does not prevent you to enjoy this music.

We all know the story. We had enjoyed the previous recording on the subject bringing together three composers, Monteverdi, Sartorio, and Rossi. This time we have the long-awaited opera by Glück. And the story is still the same except that love that makes Eurydice look back to see Orfeo behind her is turned into a triumphant passion that negates death’s edict even when death is the price to pay for this loving look, and that justifies a final miracleSo here the music is the new element since the artists are the same, even if Euridice is sung by Amanda Forsythe while Emöke Baráth holds the part of Amore. The music is by Christof Willibald Glück who was born on July 2, 1714, in Berching, Germany and died on November 15, 1787, in Vienna, Austria. That was in the heart of the German century of musical renascence. Vienna was the capital of this explosion and implosion but many other cities were important like Leipzig, Dresden and a few others. The music is thus Germanic in power, structure, and charm with Handel in England and so many in the German Empire, from Bach to Mozart and Beethoven. We could discuss one full century about considering this music as baroque, classical or romantic. Personally, I think that these classifications are not in any way helpful. This opera is typical of a rich German style and Glück can stand as an equal to Handel and even Mozart to only quote two.The rich ballet music integrated into the opera is both free enough and very well structured if not tempered for the time that we could wonder if Glück is not standing alone in this style of music. And we know how German emperors did not like ballet in their operas. True enough a ballet of ghosts is more striking that a chorus of ghosts who normally have lost their voices a long time ago but we all know ghosts are dancing in the windy corridors of old haunted castles and moaning along to express their frustration, their suffering, their longing and of course to frighten all living beings in the vicinity. I must say the singing of ghosts would be rather monotonous like “oooooOOOOOooooo!!!!!”The opera turns around one essential character from beginning to end, Orfeo himself both in his arias that can be extremely expressive and passionate, but also in his furious and angry recitatives. Philippe Jaroussky has the vocal flexibility that enables him to shift from one tone to the other, from one feeling to the next. And you will feel his hatred in his “Numi! Barbari Numi!” his hatred for these gods who – but are they human in any way? – shouldn’t we say “which” find it pleasurable and productively positive to pounce onto people and pass them over to the other side of life, just as if they were as mant salt and pepper shakers?But in this opera with only one countertenor and two sopranos, you have to really know what’s the difference in harmonics between a countertenor and a soprano. That’s the only difference between Orfeo and Amore, or between Orfeo and Euridice. And they love having duets or singing one after the other. In this opera, we have the very demonstration that it is a crime to replace a man with a woman. A countertenor is a myriad times better in the part of a man than a female soprano. The latter misses something that only the former has.The third scene has a power that only the ballet music for one and the Chorus for two provides and that is in contrast with Orfeo who is all charm, introspective contemplation of his feelings and desires. And we must remember that the Chorus contains the four basic voices, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, and it is in full contrast with Orfeo, and the Chorus has the power of the twenty-three singers, the power of number and tenor and bass male voices totally absent from the three soloists. Glück plays on the contrast very steadily.And this second part of the opera is cultivating our expectations and the coming of Euridice who will appear but say nothing until the sixth scene which is the third moment of the opera. Some cut the opera into three acts, but this version only cuts the opera in seven scenes.And of course the sixth scene arrives with Euridice intertwining her soprano voice around her countertenor counterpart Orfeo, and it is her desire to be looked at by Orfeo, to look back at Orfeo that will cause the final drama of a second death, and Glück makes Euridice even jealous as if she had been abandoned, as if Orfeo was neglecting her because he does not look at her. “rispondi, traditor!” The duet that follows is a piece of strength and beauty so powerful and impressive that it is probably the very apex of the opera that will then decline slowly intro death again. Euridice loses all energy little by little and Orfeo finds his anger again, his frustration. He speaks of his despair and plight and we could think it is some curse attached to his name or Euridice’s. Orfeo reaches the last step in his life or so he says. His life is like finished. He questions the gods. He has lost all hope.But he knows there is no way for him to rejoin Euridice and he has to wait for his own death. And we come to the final duet with Amore this time and the two voices sing in unison. And it is at this very moment that Euridice gets up and rises alive again, or is Orfeo dead?The end can be the celebration of the triumph of Love with the Chorus and the three soloists singing the miracle that was brought by Amore, that is to say by love itself. The reunion of Orfeo and Euridice beyond life and death. And the composer manages to make it some kind of hymn to the German empire:“Let Amor triumph,And all the worldServe the empireOf beauty!”As the French would say, everything ends up in songs, and here again, a light joyful song brings this miraculous drama to an end and a metaphorical hint at the Emperor who is in his position ready to applaud of course for such a final chorus. And we all think of The Marriage of Figaro four years later in which the same kind of ending was achieved with a song and a dance to forget the drama of the negation of the privileges of the Count, just the same way as here the privileges of Death have been denied. Such patterns are typical of the period I guess, when something was moving in the world. Between this opera in 1774 and Beaumarchais’s play in 1778, the first major step on the very long and never finished road to universal human and civil rights was to be signed in what will become the USA, the famous Declaration of Independence in 1776. You can feel this energy and movement in this opera. Let’s rebel against anything fatal and lethal and we may be able to bring the victory of life and love.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Saw a clip from this recording on You Tube and went straight to Amazon to try to find it. Wonderful period music and equally wonderful voices! An absolute treat!