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Christoph Willibald GLUCK (1714-1787)
Iphigénie en Aulide - Tragédie in three acts (1774) [c.110:00]
Iphigénie en Tauride - Tragédie in four acts (1779) [c.120:00]
Aulide - Iphigénie - Véronique Gens (soprano); Diane - Salomé Haller (soprano); Agamemnon - Nicholas Testé (bass); Clytemnestre - Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo); Achille - Frédéric Antoun (tenor); Patrocle - Martijn Cornet (baritone); Calchas - Christian Helmer (bass); Arcas - Laurent Alvaro (baritone)
Tauride - Iphigénie - Mireille Delunsch (soprano); Thoas - Laurent Alvaro (baritone); Oreste - Jean-François Lapointe (baritone); Pylade - Yann Beuron (tenor); Diane - Salomé Haller (soprano); Priestesses - Simone Riksman, Rosanne van Sandwijk, Gonnie van Heugten, Madieke Marjon, Maartje Rammeloo, Floor van der Sluis
Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera;
Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble/Marc Minkowski
Pierre Audi (director); Michael Simon (set design); Anna Eiermann (costume design)
rec. Amsterdam Music Theatre, September 2011
All regions; subtitles in English, French, German, Dutch and Korean
16:9 picture format
LPCM 2.0 dts audio formats
OPUS ARTE OA 1099 D [c.110:00 + c.120:00 + 38:00 (extras)]

Gluck’s operas are famous for their nobility, depth of feeling and seriousness of purpose. It is all too easy to translate these qualities simply as meaning that they are dull, and I must be honest and say that they are by no means operas that perform themselves. Any admirer of the composer’s music is likely to have encountered performances that may be noble but are also static, uninvolving and frankly boring. Singers, orchestra and producer all need to be aware all the time of the dramatic situation and to avoid any loss of tension. This is particularly the case with Orfeo ed Euridice in both the Italian and French versions. There is less risk in the two Iphigénie operas where the essential conflicts are between characters rather than within a single character. Even then, I have sat through what seemed like interminable posturing in an unsympathetic production. Fortunately that is not the case here. The production does have eccentricities and unconvincing moments but for the most part the singers are given every opportunity to make the most of the drama.
 
This set was recorded at a Dutch production in which both operas were performed. That must have been a very long evening - I did not attempt to emulate this - but admittedly no longer than that needed for the masterworks of Berlioz and Wagner, both great admirers of Gluck. There are some cuts in the first opera, although as I lack a scholarly score I would not wish to be dogmatic as to their relation to the composer’s various revisions to the work. They appear to comprise mainly dance music, including that at the conclusion of the opera and a few items inessential to the plot. In the second opera cuts are much fewer and in neither do they affect the work’s essential character.
 
The two operas are set respectively before and after the Trojan War. The first is in the Greek port of Aulis where the fleet is ready to sail for Troy but cannot leave as Agamemnon, the King of the Greeks, has angered Diana who refuses to send a wind until he has sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. The action of the opera is based on the resulting conflict between love and duty. Gluck depicts the strong emotions of all the central characters, including, as well as the father and daughter, Clytemnestra, her mother and Achilles whom she was about to marry, in music whose fluid form, subtle scoring and subservience to the dramatic situation was revolutionary for its time. These characteristics apply even more to the second opera which is set after the fall of Troy and after the events depicted later by Strauss in Elektra. Iphigenia was banished to Tauris in Scythia after the events of the first opera to become the high priestess of Diana, committed to sacrifice every stranger to the country. Her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades are shipwrecked there and accordingly condemned to be sacrificed. Brother and sister do not recognise each other, but even then the various characters find themselves in conflicts of love and duty. Again too, Gluck’s music is very closely linked to the drama. For example the first opera has a long and dramatic Overture whose form sets out the conflict in the drama itself. The second has no Overture but a short prelude depicting the calm at dawn followed by the storm which wrecks Orestes’ ship.
 
Both operas demand performances with total commitment and understanding of the musical style and with great care taken over the appropriate declamation of the text. They get it here with outstanding performances especially from both Iphigenias, from Anne Sofie van Otter as Clytemnestra and from Jean-Francois Lapointe as Orestes, but all of the singers are completely at one with their parts. There are no vocal weak links, and even if there were that would be made up for by the playing of Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble under Marc Minkowski. They realise the subtlety and variety in Gluck’s scoring with admirable care and respond at all times to the dramatic situation. This must have been helped by their unusual location within the set, behind the main acting area but very close to it. The set is completed with two large stairways on each side of the main area. The costumes belong to no specific date but suffice to delineate the nature and position of the characters. In the past I have been unenthusiastic about and even hostile to Pierre Audi’s productions which have seemed to have little to do with the operas concerned. For the most part that is not the case here. On the contrary the productions illuminate the nature of the conflicts and dramatic situations, allowing the singers to use the text to intensify them even more.
 
The presentation of the two discs is all that is needed. Subtitles, a useful booklet with straightforward and clear synopses, and brief introductions to the operas as “extra” are all provided. The recording is clear and well balanced and the filming is only occasionally too intent on drawing attention to itself with unexpected and unhelpful camera angles. Overall this set manages the very difficult feat of successfully meeting Gluck’s musical and dramatic demands and avoiding any dullness, sensationalism or musical coarseness. As a result both operas emerge as the towering masterworks they are, fully equal to stand with those of Berlioz and Wagner for which they were the partial inspiration.  

John Sheppard