Orphée et Euridice - concert performance

The iconic aria J'ai perdu mon Eurydice from Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice is etched into the collective memory. After the singer Orpheus has brought his beloved Eurydice back from the realm of the dead through the power of his music, he loses her a second time. In his powerful music drama, the composer proves himself a master of controlled emotion. Gluck bids farewell to the bravura arias and intricate plot twists of the baroque opera. Voice, text and orchestration are wholly devoted to a deeply felt tragedy, which is conveyed remarkably directly with only three protagonists (Orphée, Eurydice, Amour) and a dramatically active role for the chorus.

Gluck initially wrote the opera in Italian in 1762 and, in 1774, produced a French version for the Paris Opéra. OBV presents the 1859 reworking by Hector Berlioz, which is anything but a carbon copy of the original, but full-blooded French opera with additional music. Maestro Francesco Corti, who last season was responsible for a fiery Don Giovanni, once again guarantees gripping music drama on a knife's edge.