The Mozart Project: Idomeneo, Re di Creta

Sense, sensibility and yes, sea monsters in Mozart's mythic drama.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Image from the 1955 Ray Harryhausen picture It Came From Beneath the Sea.
© 1955 Clover Productions Incorporated.

In the year 1780, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 24 years old, he accepted a commission from the Elector of Bavaria to write a new opera for Carnival season the following year. The result was Idomeneo, re di Creta, his thirteenth opera and the earliest of his stage creations to retain a place in the standard repertory of the world's opera houses. Sprawling over three acts, this is a work of exceptional musical ambition and challenge to its performers, as it was created for the formidable orchestra and cast that were at the Elector's disposal.

Opera Review: Damascus, on a Budget

A semi-staged Armide bows at Juilliard.

New kids on the block: Emalie Savoy (standing) Wallis Giunta (l.) and Devon Guthrie (r.) in Armide.
Photo by Nan Melville © 2012 The Juilliard School/Metropolitan Opera.

On Wednesday night, Juilliard Opera unveiled the second result of the school's collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera: a semi-staged performance of Gluck's 1777 opera Armide at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The sparse non-production featured the Juilliard Orchestra and Chorus onstage and elegantly clad young singers performing in front of the band. Period performance specialist Jane Glover conducted.

Armide was Gluck's favorite among his own operas. The composer's innovative writing for the orchestra and chorus are to the fore, with memorable, dark textures in the 'cellos and basses driving the action forward. (This is what Berlioz idealized and strove to imitate in Les Troyens.) Another feature: the composer's compact, vocal lines, which create each character with firm, yet melodic phrases. The work is also a precursor of Wagner's leitmotiv technique.

Gluck's opera requires an overpowering female lead who can range from sweet seduction to overpowering rage in the final scene as the sorceress is abandoned. Emalie Savoy met both of those extremes. She was most potent in the scene where Armide summons the forces of Hell (in the persons of the chorus and soprano Renée Tatum) to end her romance with the knight Renaud. She recants in the middle of the scene, pulling a hard dramatic shift in temperament that created sympathy for this sometimes oblique character.

Ms. Savoy's performance was enhanced with a strong supporting female cast. Throughout the opera, the sorceress was flanked by two attending ladies, sung by  Wallis Giunta and Devon Guthrie. Hearing these three singers together was the chief joy of the opera's second act. Also impressive: Ms. Tatum was effective, but not hammy in the role of La Haine, the hellish embodiment of hate and heroic French opera style.

The opera's anti-heroine would be pretty lonely without a pious knight to seduce. Renaud was played by David Portillo, a lyric tenor with a pleasing, sweet tone. However, the character spends much of the action ensorcelled by Armide. He is a noble, but passive character until rescued by his even more pious buddies.

As those two questing knights, baritone Luthando Qave and  tenor Noah Baetge made a fine comic pair. Armed with half a brass curtain rod, they beat back hordes of invisible demons and great monsters that seemed to spring out of the woodwork of the Sharp Theater. They then had to contend with lovely minions of Armide, testing their virtues in a manner that recalls Sir Galahad's adventures in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

Yes, the drama is hokey, and the theatrical sensibilities of 16th-century Italian Renaissance poetry stand at far remove from our own age. But the value in this performance rests in the potent cast of young singers, and in appreciating Gluck's economy of expression and brilliant orchestration. The score was played with crisp severity by the Juilliard Orchestra under Jane Glover, who kept one eye turned to her cast as she conducted from the middle of the stage. 

In the minds of New Yorkers, it may be difficult to separate Gluck's work from Rossini's 1817opera Armida, presented at the Met in 2010 as a big-budget star vehicle for Renée Fleming. Although the two works share story points, characters and a common origin (in Torquetto Tasso's 1581  Italian romance Gerusalemme Liberata) they are very different operas. Gluck's work is a far superior product.

Opera Review: High Notes From Underground

David Daniels as Orfeo. Photo by Marty Sohl.
© 2007 The Metropolitan Opera

Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met

Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera marked the welcome return of David Daniels as Orfeo in the company's Mark Morris production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

Mr. Daniels is a countertenor, a voice type that sits close to the range of male alto castrato, the vocal type which Gluck had in mind when he wrote the opera in 1762. But his powerful, thrilling voice possesses none of the reediness or watery timbre that is so often heard in this kind of singing.

As Orfeo, Mr. Daniels spends this production clad in black and slinging an acoustic guitar, a Greek mythological equivalent of Johnny Cash, or perhaps, given the singer's good looks: Elvis Presley. He has a rich and flexible instrument has a full, round sound, akin to an alto flute, but more robust. He is also capable of feats of vocal agility, as displayed last night in his high-flying arias and long Act III duet with his Euridice, played by British soprano Kate Royal in her Met debut.

The opera follows his quest to retrieve his wife Euridice from the Hades, aided by Amor, (Lisette Oropesa) a high-flying represenatation of the God of Love. Mr. Morris' dancers make the most of Gluck's extensive, inventive ballet music, aided by the Met chorus in the depiction of Furies and heroes who block and aid Orfeo on his Chthonian quest.


The best part of the evening was the long duet between Ms. Royal and Mr. Daniels. Their voices intertwined perfectly, capturing the very human drama that Gluck was intending: a husband and a wife struggling to reunite under nearly impossible circumstances. When Orfeo finally brought himself to look at Euridice--an act which returned her to the underworld, it was a potent, moving moment that illustrated the dramatic power of this simple opera.

The action of this 90-minute opera takes place in front of a set of three tiered balconies, with 72 members of the Met chorus decked out magnificently as historical characters from disparate eras, from Genghis Khan to Abraham Lincoln and everyone in between. But given the crucial role played by the chorus in this opera and the high quality of their singing, they would have sounded great if they were in burlap sacks.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Orfeo et Euridice

David Daniels as Orfeo.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2006
The Metropolitan Opera

The Met presents a late-season revival of this Gluck opera, featuring David Daniels' return to the Metropolitan Opera stage in the role of Orfeo.

When Christoph Willibald von Gluck's adaptation of the Orpheus myth arrived on a Viennese stage in 1762, it signalled a new way of composing opera. Gluck's flawless fusion of music and text eschewed the baroque style, emphasizing storytelling over ornamentation.

This is a signature role for this fine American countertenor, one he created when this production premiered in 2006. Kate Royal is Euridice, and Lisette Oropesa is Amor, the winged representation of love. This performance uses the original version of the opera, with the Italian libretto.

Mark Morris' production features an astonishing array of costumed historical figures, arranged on tiers above the stage. These choristers help chronicle the story of Orfeo's grief at the death of Euridice, and his determination to go down into the underworld to get her back. Spectacular ballet sequences and astonishing images are reasons to see this innovative staging.

Part of the problem with recommending a recording of this particular opera is that most of the ones on the market are of different versions of the many revisions. This can be catnip for a collector but difficult to sort out at first. Here's a quick guide to the complexities of Orfeo on CD.


Recording Recommendations:

Orfeo ed Euridice
Munich Bach Orchestra cond. Karl Richter (DG, 1968)
Orfeo: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Euridice: Gundula Janowitz
Amor: Edda Moser
This intriguing recording of the 1862 version of the opera offers a unique solution to the problem of casting Orfeo. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the dark-voiced baritone reknowned for his interpretation of German lieder, offers a powerful interpretation opposite the soaring voice of Gundula Janowitz.

English Baroque Soloists cond. John Eliot Gardiner
Orfeo: Derek Lee Ragin
Euridice: Sylvia McNair
Amor: Cynthia Sieden
One of John Eliot Gardiner's two versions of this opera on disc. Here, the English period performance expert pairs Sylvia McNair with countertenor Derek Lee Ragin with glorious results. This is the closest recording to the version of the opera being performed at the Met.

Orphée ed Eurydice
In 1774, the opera was rewritten for Paris, with the part of Orfeo changed from a castrato to a high tenor. This performance uses the original version of the opera, with the Italian libretto and a countertenor in the male lead.

Coro y Orquestra Sinfonica de Madrid cond. Jesus Lopez-Cobos
Orphée: Juan Diego Flórez
Eurydice: Ainhoa Garmendia
Amor: Allesandra Marianelli
When you're casting a high tenor in an opera, there are few better than Juan Diego Florez, who just completed a run in the Met's first-ever production of Rossini's Le Comte Ory. Mr. Florez' performance makes a compelling case for the French version of this opera, in this live recording under the experienced baton of Jesus Lopez-Cobos.

Orphée ed Eurydice (Berlioz version)
San Francisco Opera cond. Donald Runnicles
Orphée: Jennifer Larmore
Eurydice: Dawn Upshaw
Amor: Alison Hagley
In 1859, Hector Berlioz revised the opera further, rewriting the part of Orphée for a mezzo-soprano to sing and modernizing the orchestration in accordance with his own theories of instrumentation. Berlioz was a brilliant orchestrator, and his version is well worth hearing. Recommended for those who prefer their 18th century operas with a 19th century orchestration. Donald Runnicles leads an excellent cast.

Orfeo et Euridice opens April 29.

Opera Review: Bishop Takes Sacrifice

Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met

Paul Groves (left) and Placìdo Domingo, trapped in Iphigénie en Tauride
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

The dreaded "backstage plague" struck the Met on Wednesday night, sidelining mezzo-soprano Susan Graham for that evening's performance of Iphigénie en Tauride. Placìdo Domingo went on as Orest, although he too was suffering from a cold.

The story of Iphigénie picks up where Elektra leaves off. Orestes is hounded by the Furies, running for his life in the company of his friend Pylade. He winds up in Tauride (modern-day Scythia) where he is scheduled to be sacrificed by the high priestess of Diana. What he doesn't know is that this is his sister, Iphigénie.

The Metropolitan Opera makes a policy of hiring cover singers to take over a role at the last minute in the event of illness. On Wednesday evening, it was Elizabeth Bishop in the title role. Ms. Bishop, a winner at the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, made a strong impression as the Greek princess-turned-priestess in Gluck's drama.

Like Ms. Graham, she is an American singer, with a good command of French and a strong onstage presence. However, she was at her best in the lower reaches of the role, as her voice tended to compress and develop a vibrato whenever she reached for her higher range. She was well matched with the ailing Mr. Domingo as Orestes. The 70-year-old super-tenor managed some fine, heroic singing despite his illness. There was nothing wrong with his acting.


With one star down and another suffering, that left tenor Paul Groves to carry the evening as Orestes' best friend, Pylade. Mr. Groves has a fine heroic instrument and an idiomatic command of French. He took the lead in the third act, singing his ensemble with the other two leads as Orestes and Pylade each attempt to be first on the altar under Iphigénie's knife.

The second half of the show had more momentum than the first, with a driven dynamic intensity as the cast settled into their roles. Patrick Summers led a crystal-clear performance in the pit, allowing the audience to hear the radical, almost revolutionary nature of Gluck's score, which paved the way for every opera that followed in the next 250 years.

Stephen Wadsworth's production remains an imaginative exercise in grimness that combines elements of Indiana Jones and Saw--imagining Diana's temple and its bloody altar as a chamber of horrors. That said, the imaginative use of actual torches on the stage, carefully choreographed ritual dances and (unaccountably) a ballet that takes place behind a big, solid wall (thus, invisible to the audience) makes this one of the more innovative productions of the Peter Gelb era.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Iphigénie en Tauride

Susan Graham and Placìdo Domingo in Stephen Wadsworth's production of Iphegénie en Tauride.
Photo by Ken Howard. © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera

One of the unexpected trends at the Peter Gelb Met has been a renewed interest in the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck, the masterful German composer who standardized the forms of French opera in the 18th century.


Gluck's work stands at the beginning of the Classical period, when the flourishes of baroque opera were rejected in favor of a strict reliance on musical forms and the fusion of words and music to make a dramatic whole. The classical ideas of Gluck would influence many composers that followed: from Mozart, to Berlioz to Richard Wagner.

Iphigénie is one of the composer's most sophisticated, powerful creations, a tragédie-lyrique that crackles with nervous tension as it veers toward a (potentially) bloody climax. Susan Graham sings the title role--the daughter of the Greek king Agamemnon who is transported by the Gods to the land of Tauris (now the Crimea.) There, she is drafted into the priesthood, and ordered to sacrifice anyone who comes ashore.

The next victim? Her own brother, Orestes.


Oh, and Orestes is played by 70-year old super-tenor Placìdo Domingo, which alone makes this revival worth seeing.

Recordings Overview:

This opera has been surprisingly well-served on disc.

Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala cond. Riccardo Muti (Sony)
Iphigénie: Carol Vaness
Orest: Thomas Allen
Pylade: Gosta Winbergh
This just-reissued set features the control-freak conducting of Riccardo Muti, leading his La Scala forces in a large-scale approach to Gluck's tragedy. Recently reissued as part of the Sony Opera House series.

Boston Baroque cond. Martin Pearlman (Telarc)
Iphegénie: Christine Goerke
Orest: Rodney Gilfry
Pylade: Vinson Cole
This was the first recording of this opera on "period" instruments. This is a stellar cast, with Goerke and Gilfry veterans of John Eliot Gardiner's excellent Mozart opera recordings.

Les Musiciens de Louvre cond. Marc Minkowski (DG Archiv)
Iphegenie: Mireille Delunsch
Orest: Simon Keenlyside
Pylade: Yan Beuron
Period instrument precision and authentic French stylings are the order of the day in this impressive installment in Marc Minkowski's survey of Gluck operas. Minkowski takes a go-for-the-throat approach that is entirely suited to this intense drama.

Iphegénie en Tauride opens on Feb. 12.

Opera Review: Down I Go

David Daniels as Orfeo.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2007 The Metropolitan Opera.

The dress rehearsal of Orfeo et Euridice at the Met.
As part of my subscription for the 2007-2008 season (more on what I'm seeing in a future edition of this blog) I was lucky enough to get tickets for the Monday dress rehearsal of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, one of the hottest tickets in the final weeks of the spring opera season. I know that we critic types aren't realy supposed to write about dress rehearsals, bit it was such a significant performance that I am going to share my thoughts below. Yes the review is running a little late, but, here it is. Enjoy.


The star of this new Orfeo is the superb countertenor of David Daniels. Daniels specializes in baroque opera, singing with a high-pitched "head voice" (not unlike Jon Anderson of the rock band Yes). In 1997, his performance as Arsamene in Handel's Xerxes at the City Opera (opposite Lorraine Hunt Lieberson) was almost single-handedly responsible for the baroque opera revival that New York has enjoyed in the last ten years. Ms. Lieberson was originally supposed to sing Orfeo in this new Met production. She died last year, and Daniels stepped in to sing her commitments. The production is dedicated to her memory.




Gluck's opera retells an ancient myth, one of death and rebirth. Orpheus is the greatest musician the world has ever known. When his wife dies, he goes down into the Underworld to reclaim her. Unfortunately, he disobeys the edict of the Greek gods and looks at and speaks to Eurydice. When he does, she is lost to him forever. The opera adds a happy deus ex machina ending, where Eros restores the lovers to life. Historically, Orfeo marked a turning point for opera, away from the filigrees of the baroque era and toward the clean classicism of Mozart and Haydn.

David Daniels gives a powerful performance in the title role, with notes of Elvis and Buddy Holly in this modern staging. His countertenor remains a smooth-flowing, flexible instrument that can negotiate the highest parts of Handel and Gluck with dizzying speed and accuracy. Heidi Grant Murphy, descending (literally) from the heavens, brought perk and energy to the role of Amor, the God of Love who makes all things possible. Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska blended well with Daniels as Euridice.

The new production is spare, with choristers arranged on three stadium tiers above the action, commenting and singing like an old-fashioned Greek chorus. They are dressed as various historical figures, from Queen Elizabeth I and Abe Lincoln to Babe Ruth and John Lennon. The Met's choral forces were a powerful storm surge in this opera. Mention must also be made of the ballet forces. Director/choreograher Mark Morris created challenging choreography to dance, and they made the most of this ballet-heavy opera. James Levine led an exuberant reading of the score in the pit.