Gluck

Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera whose historical value is as great as its musical worth. It stands as a starting point for what is often referred to as the “Gluck reform” of Italian serious opera, and the first performance of Orfeo, which took place in Vienna on the 5th of October 1762, is considered to be one of the key moments in the history of music in the eighteenth century.

Gardiner illuminates Alceste's subtle colors and inflections, assisted by von Otter, whose perceptive performance as Alceste is one of emotional sincerity and spot-on vocal accuracy. Despite being a watershed between baroque and classical opera - and a major influence on Mozart, Berlioz and even Wagner -Gluck (1714-87) is still best known today for one opera. Orfeo ed Euridice might be a masterpiece but it's one that has tended to overshadow his other fine achievements.

The most striking feature of this disc is the casting of Ewa Podles as Orphée. A Polish contralto with a tessitura that comfortably spans three octaves, she has a voice that is resonant and rich in its low notes but rises easily to tackle coloratura – a combination which she uses to dazzling effect on ‘Amour viens rende à mon âme’, the last, show-stopping aria of Act I. But its remarkable versatility apart, Podles’s distinctive sound is something of a curiosity – dark, slightly guttural and peculiarly tubular. The comprimarios, Raphaëlle Farman as Eurydice and Marie-Noëlle de Callataÿ as Amour, produce a clean, attractive sound. Sung in French, this recording uses Berlioz’s 1859 revision.

Venezuelan born male soprano Samuel Mariño (*1993) presents his debut album with baroque arias by Christoph Willibald Gluck and Georg Friedrich Händel. Gluck and Händel met each other and played music together in London in 1746. For this release, the original program of that concert was expanded with arias tailor-made for male soprano. This album is unique in every respect. It includes first recordings of works that are sensationally beautiful and that have never been heard before. And then there is a voice, a male soprano, singing for the first time in 250 years things that no man before him was able to sing.

Le cinesi (''The Chinese ladies'') is one of numerous pieces of the kind—generally called azione teatrale or something similar—composed during the eighteenth century for court entertainments.

Star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky continues his exploration of operatic settings of the Orpheus myth with the most famous of the many operas inspired by the story of the Greek poet who searches for his dead wife in the Underworld: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. It contains one of the world's best-loved operatic arias, Orfeo's restrained, but moving lament, 'Che farò senza Euridice'.

The most popular opera of Gluck might be Orfeo ed Euridice, but this one, Iphigénie en Tauride, is probably his most dramatically involving. It is about familial love and deep friendship and, as such, lacks the usual "love" music and interest. But the waters here run deep, and Martin Pearlman and his singers plumb those depths. Christine Goerke's Iphigénie is dignified, rich with expression and beautiful tone. Almost no less good is the Orestes of Rodney Gilfry, who uses his high baritone with intelligence and ease, singing tenderly when needed and explosively at other times. Vinson Cole brings grainy, expressive tenor to the role of Pylades firmly and effectively; and Stephen Salters, as the villainous Thaos, might sing coarsely, but it suits the character.

Gluck composed “Ezio” only one year after the success of “Orfeo”. It was premiered in 1763 at the Burgtheatre in Vienna. Although not as successful as “Orfeo” it contains many fine moments and this recording, in which Michael Hofstetter conducts a first rate cast, should introduce more opera listeners to this fine work. “….the representation of his (Gluck’s) early and middle years is patchy. All the more fitting then, to be able to welcome a thoroughly satisfactory issue of Ezio….. It is greatly to the credit of countertenor Franco Fagioli, who sings the part (Ezio, sung by the famous castrato Guadagni in the première) in this recording, that there is no sense of anticlimax: he produces firm, expressive singing, with delicacy where appropriate.”

The packaging for this recording, though handsomely produced, gives a perplexing impression of the content of the CDs. The album's title (in French) is Philémon et Baucis, though there is no reference to that title in the extensive program notes, which focus exclusively on a work called Le Feste d'Apollo. In fact, Le Feste d'Apollo, premiered in 1769, consisted of a prologue and three unrelated short acts, each a self-contained opera, with texts by four different Italian poets. This CD set includes two of those operas, Aristeo and Bauci e Filemone, the third opera being an early version of Orfeo ed Eurydice written in 1762, 12 years before the definitive French version of Gluck's masterpiece.

Here we have the first complete recording of Gluck's charming one-act serenata teatrale for chamber orchestra and four treble voices, composed for the marriage of Hapsburg Archduke Joseph in January 1765. The Archduke's first wife had died. This time he was to marry the Bavarian princess, Maria Josepha. For this performance of the new Gluck work, four of the Archduke's daughters from his first marriage who were all accomplished musicians, sang roles in the new work. The new bridegroom's younger brother Leopold, conducted. That the four Archduchesses could successfully negotiate the florid soprano roles Gluck fashioned for them, is most impressive.