- Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) was the first of three “reform” operas Gluck wrote with librettist. Italian poet and Enlightenment disciple Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. The two were trying to forge a new path in opera, reacting against the strict, stylized conventions of opera seria.1
- Gluck and Calzabigi were serious about opera reform: their second opera, Alceste (1767), laid out their new opera philosophy in its preface.2
- Gluck presented a French version of Orpheus in 1774, dedicated to Marie Antoinette. She liked it so much she rewarded him with a pension of 6000 livres per year.
- Gluck had been Marie Antoinette’s singing teacher when she was a young princess in Vienna.
- The Dance of the Blessed Spirits: In Orpheus, this movement is immediately preceded by The Dance of the Furies, a terrifying depiction of the underworld through which Orpheus travels to find Euridice. The Dance of the Blessed Spirits presents a stark contrast as Orpheus enters the serene Elysian Fields and is overwhelmed with the beauty of the heavenly afterlife.
- Gluck expanded both dance sequences for the French production in 1774 because ballet was an integral part of opera for French audiences.3
Sources
- Jeremy Hayes et al, “Gluck, Christoph Willibald Ritter von,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000007318.
- Ibid.
- Rachel Beaumont, “Orphée et Euridice Musical Highlights: Dance of the Blessed Spirits and Dance of the Furies,” Royal Opera House (September 4, 2015), accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.roh.org.uk/news/orphee-et-eurydice-musical-highlights-dance-of-the-blessed-spirits-and-dance-of-the-furies.
Cut IDs
11867, 15414, 19386, 21843, 40722, 40868, 44644, 45556,