Gluck US 11/01/2005 03:04Pm Page 28

660185-86bk Gluck US 11/01/2005 03:04pm Page 28 ORPHÉE ORPHEUS Ah, justes dieux! Ah, just gods! Quelle est notre reconnaissance! How grateful we are! GLUCK L’AMOUR LOVE Ne doutez plus de ma puissance. No longer doubt my power. Orphée et Euridice Je viens vous retirer de cet affreux séjour. I have come to take you from this dreary abode. Jouissez désormais des faveurs de l’amour. Enjoy henceforth the favour of love. (1774 Paris Version) SCÈNE III SCENE III Fouchécourt • Dubosc • Le Blanc Temple magnifique dédié à l’Amour. Orphée, Magnificent temple dedicated to Love. Orpheus, Euridice et l’Amour, précédés de bergers et de Euridice and Love, preceded by shepherds and Opera Lafayette Orchestra and Chorus nymphes qui viennent fêter le retour d’Euridice. nymphs coming to celebrate Euridice’s return. Ryan Brown ORPHÉE ORPHEUS L’Amour triomphe, Love is triumphant, Et tout ce qui respire and all living things Sert l’empire de la beauté. are servants of beauty. Sa chaîne agréable Its pleasant bonds Est préférable à la liberté. are preferable to liberty. LE CHOEUR CHORUS L’Amour triomphe, etc. Love is triumphant, etc. L’AMOUR LOVE Dans les peines, dans les alarmes In pain and in worry Je fais souvent languir les coeurs. I often cause hearts to languish. Mais, dans un instant, mes charmes But, in an instant, my magic Font pour jamais oublier mes rigueurs. causes my severity to be forgotten forever. LE CHOEUR CHORUS L’Amour triomphe, etc. Love is triumphant, etc. EURIDICE EURIDICE Si la cruelle jalousie If cruel jealousy A troublé mes tendres désirs, troubled my tender desires, Les douceurs dont elle est suivie the joys which followed it Sont des chaînes de plaisirs. are bonds of pleasure. LE CHOEUR CHORUS L’Amour triomphe, etc. Love is triumphant, etc. 8.660185-86 28 660185-86bk Gluck US 11/01/2005 03:04pm Page 2 Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) Oui, je te suis, tendre objet de ma foi, Yes, I am following you, tender object of my love, Orphée et Euridice Je te suis, attends-moi! I am following you, wait for me! Tu ne me seras plus ravie You shall never again be taken from me There have been three significantly different versions of Bibliothèque Nationale, including the conductor’s score, Et la mort pour jamais va m’unir avec toi. and death shall unite us forever. Gluck’s work before the public since Orfeo was first a choral score, and the livret (the pre-prepared text for the produced in 1762. Gluck composed his first version in audience.) We compared each of these to the Bärenreiter (Il sort son épée pour se donner la mort. (Orpheus draws his sword to kill himself. Vienna and in Italian. The second he revised (in French) edition, a kind of compendium of various Paris L’Amour apparaît.) Love appears.) and expanded for Paris in 1774, and the third is one which performances in the late eighteenth century. Not only was Gluck’s admirer Hector Berlioz revised in Paris in 1859. the conductor’s score in particular very helpful with SCÈNE II SCENE II Of the many differences between these versions, the most regard to interpretive matters, but it also indicated ways in prominent is the voice used for Orpheus: in 1762 Gluck which the 2nd August 1774 performance was shorter than Récit Recitative wrote the rôle for a castrato, in 1774 he rewrote it for a subsequent eighteenth-century versions. These initial L’AMOUR LOVE tenor, and in 1859 Berlioz rewrote it again for a female performance materials suggested, for instance, that at the Arrête, Orphée! Stop, Orpheus! alto. It is a variant of the Berlioz version, though end of Act I, Scene 1, the récit ‘Eloignez-vous’ directly translated back into Italian, which has been heard most follows the Pantomime, which then proceeds directly to ORPHÉE ORPHEUS often in the opera house of the last century. More recently the Chœur, without a ritournelle. The materials also Ô ciel, qui pourrait en ce jour Heavens, who could now the 1762 version has been recreated with a counter–tenor indicated that the tenor Legros decided not to attempt the Retenir le transport de mon âme égarée? restrain the ardour of my distraught soul? in the title rôle. The 1774 Paris version, however, which ariette ‘L’espoir renaît’ at the end of Act I. (Legros was was the most popular version in the eighteenth and early known for his beautiful high notes but not, it seems, for L’AMOUR LOVE nineteenth century, is only now receiving its due. his agility). We have decided to keep it, however, as Jean- Calme ta fureur insensée. Calm your mad frenzy, The high tenor, or haut-contre, was a voice that Paul Fouchécourt negotiates it with ease. In Act III, Scene Arrête et reconnais l’Amour, stop and recognise Love, French composers of the eighteenth century cultivated 2, the conductor’s score suggests that L’Amour’s récit Qui veille sur ta destinée. who watches over your destiny. and challenged, and which Gluck made remarkable use of with Orphée and Euridice moves directly into the final in this version of Orphée. The relatively low pitch of the chorus, without an additional trio, and that the chorus ORPHÉE ORPHEUS Paris Opera orchestra in the eighteenth century, and its finishes the work without an additional ballet. These Qu’exigez-vous de moi? What do you demand of me? apparent flexibility, helped make the tenor’s high tessitura indications preserve a direct and dramatic finish, at least possible. (Rousseau and others said that the Opera within the conventions of late eighteenth-century opera. L’AMOUR LOVE orchestra actually varied its pitch depending on the needs The greatest conventional change to the story is of course Tu viens de me prouver You have proved of the singers.) Period-instrument orchestras today again the one described in the Argument of the livret, which ta constance et ta foi. your constancy and your faithfulness. play at these lower pitches (ours is A=392), and they offer states that ‘to adapt this fable to our stage, it has been Je vais soulager ton martyre. I shall end your martyrdom. a different and more comfortable set of sonorities and necessary to change the catastrophe and to add the (Il touche Euridice et la ranime.) (Love touches Euridice and brings her back to life.) articulations with which to accompany this vocal range. episode in which Love reunites husband and wife’. Euridice. respire! Euridice. Live again! In addition to rewriting the title rôle for tenor, Soon after the 1774 début, more dances were added Du plus fidèle époux Come reward the passion Gluck’s other changes to the 1774 version of Orphée et for other Parisian performances. Most of these dances viens couronner les feux. of the most faithful of husbands. Euridice involved the incorporation of new dances and Gluck borrowed from his earlier works. In 1776 Orphée airs for the Parisian stage. The flute solo from the Ballet et Euridice was choreographed by the famous Jean- ORPHÉE ORPHEUS des Ombres Heureuses is certainly the most famous of Georges Noverre. For our public performance of the work Mon Euridice! My Euridice! these. Additionally Gluck reworked and orchestrated the we engaged the choreographer Catherine Turocy and the opera’s recitatives. New York Baroque Dance Company, and added a final EURIDICE EURIDICE Our recording is based upon the very first Paris ballet, or divertissement. Orphée! Orpheus! performance on 2nd August, 1774. In addition to For this recording we are pleased to be able to fragments of an autograph score, we consulted the present the 1774 version of Orphée as sung by a tenor performance materials for this Parisian début found in the experienced in the major rôles of eighteenth-century 8.660185-86 2 27 8.660185-86 660185-86bk Gluck US 11/01/2005 03:04pm Page 26 ORPHÉE ORPHEUS French opera. We hope that it will breathe new life into so central to our collective imagination for many Malheureux, qu’ai-je fait! Wretched man, what have I done! Gluck’s magnificent retelling of a myth which has been centuries. Et dans quel précipice Over what precipice M’a plongé mon funeste amour! has my tragic love thrown me! Ryan Brown Chère épouse. .Euridice! Dear wife . Euridice! Euridice. chère épouse! Euridice . dear wife! Gluck and Reform Opera Elle ne m’entend plus, je la perds sans retour! She no longer hears me. I have lost her forever! C’est moi qui lui ravis le jour! It was I who took away her life! The son of a forester who, by 1727, was in the service of Juan or The Stone Guest). The arrival in Vienna that year Loi fatale! Fatal decree! Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, Christoph of Ranieri de’ Calzabigi was the catalyst for a change of Cruel remords! Cruel remorse! Willibald Gluck was born in 1714 and spent his course for opera, now abandoning the conventions of Ma peine est sans égale, My pain is unequalled, childhood in his native Bohemia, with its strong musical Metastasian opera seria in favour of a new simplicity Dans ce moment funeste, In this tragic moment traditions. He studied at the University of Prague, while and a measure of dramatic realism. The first result of the Le désespoir, la mort despair and death continuing his own musical activities, and by 1734 was joint work of Calzabigi, Angiolini and Gluck, under the Est tout ce qui me reste. are all that remain for me. in Vienna, it is supposed with the patronage of the encouragement of Count Durazzo, was Orfeo ed Lobkowitz family.

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