Orpheus & Eurydice - d2ae1n566nbglo.cloudfront.net · Orpheus & Eurydice • Gluck created an...
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Orpheus & Eurydice
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“How is it that the Italians have no good, serious opera? During the nine or ten years I lived in
Rome I never saw one succeed…”(Andre Gretry)
“In Italian theatres the musician’s sole function was as a kind of embroiderer, to adorn weak and foolish libretti…while deep thoughts and serious feelings were hampered by the necessity of doing
nothing to offend.”(Ernest Newman)
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Siroe (1733) (Johann Adolph Hasse)
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The Age of Enlightenment
• The C18th was the Age of Reason –
a period of great philosophical
change.
• Rationality and science replaced
superstition. Even religion and
monarchy questioned.
• This new age placed new emphasis
on the importance of the arts:
• Art no longer just
entertainment.
• Naturalism and simple truths
favoured over elaborate artifice.
• Actor David Garrick started a
trend for expressive,
psychologically truthful
performances.
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“…to delight the eyes and ears, to rouse up and to affect the hearts of an audience,
without the risk of sinning against reason or common sense.”
(Francesco Algarotti – Essay on the Opera, 1755)
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Christoph Willibald Gluck
• Gluck (1714-1787) was a German
composer active across Europe
during C18th.
• Based at Royal Court in Vienna
from 1550s-1570s where met
Count Giacomo Durazzo, head of
the court theatre.
• Durazzo brought Gluck and
librettist Ranieri de Calzabigi
together with commission for a
new opera: Orpheus and
Eurydice.
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“I have striven to restrict music to its true office of serving poetry and following the situations of the story,
without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity of ornaments; in short, I have
sought to abolish all the abuses against which good sense and reason have long cried out in vain.”
(Christoph Willibald Gluck)
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“The effect that the music of Orpheus produced on me was so deep, so keen, so all-absorbing, so
heartrending, that I was quite unable to speak of these sensations. I felt the agitation and pleasure of pure
passion.”
(Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, 1774)
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Orpheus & Eurydice
• Gluck created an atmospheric,
vividly dramatic score: “I have
striven to be more a poet and a
painter than a musician”
• Dissolves traditional divide
between recitative/aria, and gives
new weight to recitative
• Integrated ballets into the flow of
the action
• Made greater use of chorus
• Aspired to music of “noble
simplicity” rather than dazzling
virtuosity
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Orpheus & Eurydice
• Calzabigi created a libretto that
avoided traditional operatic
cliches. He:
o Reduced cast to three
o Reduced text-repetition
o Set text syllabically
o Focused on human emotion
rather than magic and
spectacle
o Replaces “florid descriptions”
with “intense passions”
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