Orphee et Eurydice

Composer: Gluck, Christoph Willibald

Librettist/Text Author: Moline, Pierre Louis

Conductor: Gardiner, John Eliot

Orchestra: Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique

Chorus: Monteverdi Choir

Amour: Petibon, Patricia

Eurydice: Bender, Madeline

Orphee: Kozena, Magdalena

Stage Director: Wilson, Robert

Television Director: Large, Brian

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Venue: Theatre du Chatelet, Paris

Playing Time: 01:39:36

Catalogue Number: MID13245157

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Gluck's 1762 opera Orphee et Eurydice was groundbreaking in its day and, as this 1999 performance from the Theatre Musical de Paris shows, it still lends itself to radical treatment. The composer's rejection of traditional, flamboyant, operatic bells and whistles led to a fresh form in which the lyrics hold court. The music provides the setting and emotional color in a way that is almost physical in its intensity. Gluck's readiness to incorporate the influences of other art forms - poetry, ballet, and drama - has always made this story of love rescued from the jaws of tragedy universally appealing.