Gluck and Glass in the underworld

Synopsis

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a priest of Apollo and a fabulous musician, who attempted to bring his dead wife Eurydice back from the underworld.

On this day in 1774, in Paris, the first performance of the French version of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck took place. Gluck originally wrote the opera in Italian, but for the French version in 1774, he added some new instrumental music, including a serene interlude depicting the Dance of the Blessed Spirits — an excerpt that has become one of Gluck’s most famous and best-loved works.

Over the centuries, more than 60 operas have been written on the theme of Orpheus and Eurydice. In fact, two of the very first operas ever written are based on this legend, both by Italian composers of the late Renaissance: one by Jacopo Peri performed in 1600 and another by Claudio Monteverdi from 1607.

One of the more recent operas based on the Orpheus legend is by the American composer Philip Glass, based on a libretto he adapted from the 1950 movie, Orpheus, by surrealistic French poet and film director Jean Cocteau. The American Repertory Theatre and the Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned Glass’s version in 1993.

Music Played in Today's Program

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787): Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orphée; Academy of Ancient Music; Christopher Hogwood, conductor; L’oiseau Lyre 410 553

Philip Glass (b. 1937): Act 2 Interlude from Orphée; Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor; Nonesuch 79496-2

On This Day

Births

• 1891 - English composer Arthur Bliss, in London

• 1905 - German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann, in Munich

• 1936 - British composer Anthony Payne, in London

Deaths

• 1827 - English-born early American composer James Hewitt, 57, in Boston

• 1945 - Italian opera composer Pietro Mascagni, 81, in Rome

• 1945 - Austrian composer Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, 85, in Berlin

• 1978 - Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chavez, 79, in Mexico City

Premieres

• 1774 - Gluck: opera, Orphee (second version) in Paris at the Academie Royale. This is the French version of his Italian opera Orfeo ed Euridice, which had premiered in Vienna in 1762.

• 1964 - Persichetti: Piano Concerto, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire

• 1990 - David Matthews: Romanza for cello and small orchestra (Mstislav Rostropovich, soloist); Patrick Gowers: Suite for solo violin and chamber orchestra (José-Luis Garcia soloist) and Patrick Doyle The Thistle and the Rose (soprano Maria McLaughlin soloist), at the ballroom of Buckingham Palace in London, by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Raymond Leppard. All three works were specially written for a concert celebrating the 90th birthday of Queen Elisabeth (aka the Queen Mother).

• 1993 - John Harbison: Three City Blocks for symphonic band, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, by the U.S. Air Force Band, Lt. Col. Alan Bonner conducting

Others

• 1921 - Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, 48, dies in Naples

• 1923 - First festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Salzburg, Austria, offering chamber music by Schönberg, Berg and Bartók. Even though the Berg String Quartet, had premiered it Vienna on April 24, 1911, it was the 1923 Salzburg performance by the Havemann Quartet that established Berg’s worldwide reputation in musical circles.