|
|
|
| | Arts Calendar / May 22 / Concerts |
|
|
|
19:00 | Christoph Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice |
|
|
|
|
Concert performance of the opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" (the Paris version of 1774) by Christoph Willibald Gluck will be performed by Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra and Intrada Vocal Ensemble conducted by William Lacey (UK) to the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. Soloists: Colin Lee (tenor, UK), Deborah York (soprano, UK), Sophie Junker (soprano, Belgium). Orfeo ed Euridice is based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at Vienna on 5 October 1762. Orfeo ed Euridice is the first of Gluck's "reform" operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of opera seria with a "noble simplicity" in both the music and the drama. The opera is the most popular of Gluck's works, and one of the most influential on subsequent German opera. Variations on its plot - the underground rescue-mission in which the hero must control, or conceal, his emotions - include Mozart's The Magic Flute, Beethoven's Fidelio and Wagner's Das Rheingold. Though originally set to an Italian libretto, Orfeo ed Euridice owes much to the genre of French opera, particularly in its use of accompanied recitative and a general absence of vocal virtuosity. Indeed, twelve years after the 1762 premiere, Gluck re-adapted the opera to suit the tastes of a Parisian audience at the Academie Royale de Musique with a libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline. This reworking was given the title Orphee et Eurydice, and several alterations were made in vocal casting and orchestration to suit French tastes.
Tchaikovsky Concert Hall  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The virtual community for English-speaking expats and Russians
