This was my second Gluck translation – the older repertoire is a particular challenge, mainly because there are generally few words, tight rhymes and archaic original librettos – e.g. Monteverdi, Rameau, Handel, Gluck.
This commission came from the Opera Theatre of St Louis, for Ron Daniels’s production for their 2018 Festival, slightly unusually named Orpheo and Euridice
There are three versions: Gluck revised his original Italian `Azione teatrale’ Orfeo ed Euridice for its French premiere as a `tragedie’ –Orphée; then in 1859 Berlioz made some changes, and assigned the title role to a woman (Pauline Viardot). The production in St Louis used the Berlioz edition, slightly modified.
`Opera Theatre St. Louis, with conductor Paul Vallet and stage director Ron Daniels, uses the latest, polished version of the text to great success.’
Broadway World