Iphigenie En Tauride

Two late and baleful tragedies by Euripides focus on the ill-starred daughter of the Greek King, Agamemnon. Will he sacrifice Iphigenia in order to secure fair winds for his voyage to Troy? In Aulis, the drama rages until she is spared. Having escaped to Tauris, Iphigenia finds herself compelled to kill her own brother before, once more, the fickle gods intervene. Gluck's operatic settings are very rarely staged together, but Pierre Audi's production makes a darkly compelling case for their dramatic unity. All the lead performers here are experienced exponents of Gluck, and together they present a powerfully idiomatic experience.

Political and cultural circumstances – depending on whether Lorraine / Lothringen belonged to France or Germany – made Théodore Gouvy a border crosser between these two countries. It was very unusual for a French composer of his generation not to assign a central role to music theater in his oeuvre. His rejection of Wagner's music dramas also made him something of an exception in France. It is true, however, that the oratorio was a key genre within his oeuvre – and the oratorio at least can be counted as a dramatic genre. Gouvy wrote six major oratorio compositions, two based on Nordic subjects and two drawing on ancient tragedies.

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.

This is the masterwork, Gluck's last important opera, which convinced the teenage medical student Berlioz, when he first heard it in 1821, that he had to be a composer. He worshipped Gluck and took his side in the phoney "Gluck vs.Piccini War". He set himself the task of sitting in the Conservatoire library to copy out the entire score in order to absorb its lessons. Its directness and drama influenced his artistic style his whole life through, as evinced by key points in "Les Troyens".

Following the success of 1999's thrilling Armide, Marc Minkowski and his excellent cast fully convey the power and drama of Gluck's masterpiece. They pull you into the story (based on a play by Euripides) through the emotional truth of their interpretation. The opening quiet strings create an air of mystery dispelled by a ferocious storm magnificently conveyed by these early-music specialists. Within a few phrases of Iphigénie's opening lament, Delunsch creates a believable, sympathetic character.

Gluck‘s wonderful but neglected 1774 opera Iphigénie en Tauride, inspired by the Greek legend, is treated with forceful and convincing simplicity in Klaus Guth‘s revolutionary production staged at the Zurich Opera House. The psychological drama in a tense atmosphere of fears and traumas is underlined by Guth‘s use of huge masks and enclosed spaces. Conductor William Christie and his typically transparent but never cold orchestral sound perfectly match the descriptive elements in Gluck’s score, while the Armenian mezzosoprano Juliette Galstian as a fabulously good Iphigénie, the leading American opera baritone Rodney Gilfry as Oreste and the deceased South African tenor Deon van der Walt as Pylade head a superb cast.

This six-CD set is sure to be of interest to fans of Susan Graham, the phenomenally successful American mezzo-soprano. The recordings, with the exception of just a few tracks from the 1990s, were made between 2000 and 2005, and they reveal Graham in her prime. Five of the discs had previously been released, but one is made up of selections from a variety of sources, including complete opera recordings. The set demonstrates Graham's versatility, both stylistically in the many types of music she sings and in the emotional spectrum that the songs and arias encompass. .

Tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen concludes his trilogy dedicated to hautes-contre with "Legros, haute-contre de Gluck". Joseph Legros (1739-1793) was a singer at the Paris Opéra, renowned for his extraordinary musical abilities, wide range and brilliant high notes. “His contemporaries appreciated the fact that his vocal delivery was not forced and that his taste was less mannered than that of his predecessors. His pronunciation was perfect and his face pleasing, although he did not cut a graceful figure and his stage acting left something to be desired” writes Benoit Dratwicki, of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, which is a partner in this series… Legros sparked renewed interest among modern composers for the haute-contre voice.