Orphee et Eurydice by Marc Minkowski

I listened to Gluck’s opera Orphee et Eurydice conducted by Marc Minkowski and orchestrated by Les Musiciens du Louvre.

Marc Minkowski’s orchestration is refined, lively and as always, impressively elegant. His orchestration in this production is little less powerful than the same opera by John Eliot Gardier’s but more sensitive and hauntingly beautiful.

Soprano, Mireille Delunsch sung Eurydice. I prefer her Eurydice than her Poppea. Her elegant, silky dark shade of her beautiful voice is well suited for this role.

Gluck wrote the role of Orpheus for alto castrato originally for the Italian premiere in 1762 and then revised it to soprano castrato in another Italian production with both sung in Italian. And then he changed it to high tenor with French libretto when he presented it in France in 1774. The reason is that although the use of castrato singers as main roles was widely popular throughout Europe but exception of France. According to the production note, French preferred tenors to sing their hero roles.

Orpheus is sung by tenor, Richard Croft. He sung sensitive, tender romantic Orpheus wonderfully. I read somewhere that he had bad health condition for he had cold in this live recording. It’s hard to tell when listening to his highly technical coloratura aria like " L'espoir renait dans mon ame”. His voice is very beautiful in this opera though his phrasing sounds better in Italian than in French.

He sings the best aria in this opera "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" most tenderly. Orpheus sings this aria in the most dramatic moment of the opera when he realizes he lost his wife, Eurydice again and this time, forever by looking back.  When I first listened to this aria, I was initially taken back by its light brightness. This aria is little too lyrical and too melodious for the most tormented moment when he should cry out or scream.

But more I listened, the more the melody became hauntingly tender, row and painfully beautiful. Orpheus’ heart is absolutely broken. This aria is stark contrast to the earlier upbeat marching aria, “L'espoir renait dans mon ame” when he was giving the hope to see Eurydice again. Gluck did very innovating thing.

Orphee et Eurydice by John Eliot Gardiner

I watched Gluck’s opera Orphee et Eurydice conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, orchestrated by Revolutionnaire et Romantique with chorus by Monteverdi Choir.

John Eliot Gardiner’s orchestration is refined, dramatic and powerful.

The castrato role of Orpheus is sung by mezzo-soprano, Magdalena Kozena. As always, she sung wonderfully. She’s high mezzo-soprano which has similar voice texture with the rest of all the other solo soprano singers. So there is less layer variation when they sung trio. It is the only minor issue, if there is one.

All these female singers are pretty and also because of their make-up, they all looked like fashion models on the stage. And they have beautiful voices.

This production has such austere costume, stage setting and acting direction, which you might see in Star Trek. And yet, because Magdalena Kozena is naturally physically expressive individual including facially as much as her singing expression, these austerities didn’t suppress her expressions physically or musically.

I’ve never really sat down and listened to Gluck before. I picked this opera to watch because I thought it is Baroque opera but came to find out that it belongs to Classical. Though it’s not Baroque piece, I’m writing about it because I found some features in this opera very intriguing.

Musically, this is very well written powerful opera with some wonderful numbers which could be easily called masterpiece. Some portions of this opera sound so much like Mozart. It was written when Mozart was child so it is more likely this opera influenced Mozart.

This opera was premièred in 1762, which is the transitional period between Baroque and Classical era. The music itself is very Classical but it is different from typical either Baroque or Classical opera.

There are only four solo singers and the main character, Orpheus does most of the solo singing. Usually operas are filled with arias. But there are fewer arias in this opera and there are extensive portions of recitative, chorus and instrumental music than usual, which have importance and weight as much as aria potions.

Since Mid-Baroque period, there is distinguished line between recitatives and arias. But there is no such clear distinguish between them in this opera and they are all streamlined as in Early Baroque opera. This is very different from Late Baroque, Classical and Romantic opera.

Gluck also took all the highly decorative characteristics of Baroque music from this opera. Orpheus’s one aria “L'espoir renait dans mon ame” has extensive trilling. Except this aria, there is no da capo aria nor ornamentation singing.

The storyline is also overly simplified including libretto which is very simple, you could almost say, cheaply written.

All these things seem to mean to highlight the dramatic effect of the story musically and powerfully in the simplest ways. And I think Gluck succeeded.

The Fairy Queen by William Christie

I watched Purcell’s opera, the Fairy Queen orchestrated by the Age of Enlightenment under the conduction of William Christie.

The Fairy Queen is not ordinary opera but the jumble of trendy nightclub entertainment show with lots of speaking dialogue, dancing and singing for it is based on Shakespeare’s A Midnight Summer’s Dream. The orchestration was very good and the singers sung well but they’re not the best.

And yet, musically, this opera is the treasure box filled with rich finest works by Purcell.

“Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell

I watched Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” conducted by Philippe Pierlot staring Romina Basso & Nuria Rial. I liked the opera so I also watched another production by William Christie.

Before I listened to Baroque opera, I only knew a few songs by Purcell. From the modern tunes with dark spookiness of these music, I thought him as Romantic era composer and it was kind of surprise to know that he was actually Baroque era composer.

He’s very interesting composer whose music is different from any other classical composers’. His music is very English and modern. He wrote hauntingly beautiful music, which has melancholic simplicity but has strongly directive emotional appeal.

Somehow some of his music also reminds me of 70’s Progressive rock such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis and Brian Eno. I think it’s not only because Baroque music in general specially early Baroque music (and also some Romantic era music) is much closer to modern pop music in harmony than Classical music, it is also something to do with the fact that modern pop music was evolved from English/Irish folk music.