Orphée et Eurydice

Christoph Gluck Orphée et Eurydice in French (Orfeo ed Euridice in the original Italian name) opera to libretto by Pierre-Louis Moline (sung in French). David Alagna made theatrical and musical adaptations and directed at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in  2008. Stars Roberto Alagna (brother of the director), Serena Gamberoni, and Marc Barrard. Giampaolo Bisanti conducts the Teatro Comuniale di Bologna Orchdestra (Chorus Master Paolo Vero). Sets by David Algana; costumes by Carla Teti; lighting by Aldo Solbiati; directed for TV by Arnaud Petitet and David Alagna. Released 2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

In Orpheus and Eurydice (English spelling) Gluck wrote a relatively simple opera that blends singing, orchestration, drama, and dance. It was first performed in 1762 in Italian. It has a lean core of satisfying music that lends itself to adaptation. Gluck was the first adaptor --- he tinkered with the work repeatedly and also wrote a much-modified version in French. Later composers and directors have continued this tradition. This mutability has been the key to the survival of Orpheus and Eurydice in the face of competition like Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, a vastly more complicated and mature work that came along only 24 years later.

So let's celebrate rather than bemoan the fact that current versions of Orpheus and Eurydice might be pretty surprising to Herr Gluck if he could tune in. That healthy attitude will prepare us to enjoy the Alagna brothers version we review now, which I describe as an indie motion picture that happens to use a performance on an opera stage as a location.

Using the Gluck's 1774 French version, the Alagnas recast the main roles (historically usually all sung by women or castrati) so that Eurydice is a soprano, Orpheus a tenor, and Amor (more about him later) becomes a baritone. To the modern ear this is a huge improvement over listening to three female leads. The Alagnas assume that the audience doesn't know the story of the classical myth all that well and then provide the following version: We meet Orpheus and Eurydice at their joyful wedding, which is immediately followed by the death of Eurydice in a car wreck. At the funeral, Orpheus' grief is so moving that the undertaker (called "Le Guide" instead of "Amor") intervenes and offers to take Orpheus into the netherworld to fetch Eurydice. Le Guide explains, of course, how Orpheus can't look at his bride lest she die again. Sexpot Eurydice is grumpy after being aroused from the blissful anesthesia of death. Denied a loving look from her husband, she proves that she knows how to get what she wants. After her second death, Orpheus follows her lead.

Having come up with a suitable plot for 2010, the Alagnas move chunks of the music and libretto around to fit. The emotional effect is the same as ever with the Gluck's wrenchingly mournful music relentlessly threatening to push you over the edge into tears. But now the Alagnas add something you don't expect: camp humor. The humor is mostly provided by Marc Barrard's portrayal of Le Guide. Standing tall with lugubrious face surrounded by a floor-length black leather trench coat, stovepipe hat, and black sunglasses, he is the perfect droll antidote to the pathos of the ancient legend. Le Guide is well equipped with his beat-up old Ford station wagon for a hearse, squad of Blues Brothers-looking pall bearers, and funeral parlor with a bank-vault door leading to the land of shades. And even Eurydice and Orpheus get a chance to show their skill at physical comedy.

We know this production was played live to audiences in Bologna because we see curtain calls at the end in a kind of sequel. But on the other hand, the HDVD version is not simply a recording of the live opera. The design of the HDVD show was inspired by the movies. It makes fascinating use of film devices like total camera mobility, obvious trick editing, rapid jump cuts, oversaturation and blooming of colors, artificial granularization, miss-focus, dual and negative images, and slow motion. Some of this maybe was done in post-production, but I also think the film was shot in multiple takes shot in parallel with the mounting of the live opera.

The result is an intriguing version of Gluck's old opera that is in tune with today's tastes. The singing and acting by all three principals is excellent, the chorus is excellent, and the orchestra sounds fine. Because it ought to help bring younger audiences (weaned on films) to the traditional fine arts, this title deserves at least the grade of "B+."