Cheat Sheet:
Orpheus & Eurydice

In a nutshell

The composer: Gluck. Bohemian. 18th century.

The music: Graceful and lyrical with memorable arias, tuneful choruses and lively ballet music.

The big hit: ‘Che farò senza Euridice?’ in which Orpheus pours out his heart on losing his wife for the second time.

The setting: Ancient Campania and the Underworld.

The history: The opera premiered at Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1762 in the presence of the Empress Maria Theresa.

A quirky fact to impress your date: In the traditional Greek myth, Orpheus really did lose Eurydice for good. Devoting his days to Apollo – and some say young men – he was confronted one day by a group of wild Thracian women who tore him into pieces. His head, one version goes, was cast into a river where it floated away, still singing his mournful song.

Who was the composer?

Christoph Willibald Gluck. Born in Bavaria in 1714, raised in Bohemia, and trained in Italy, Gluck was a truly cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in both Italian and French.

His early works, written for companies in Italy, Germany, London, Prague and Copenhagen, were composed in the old opera seria style. That meant lengthy sections of exposition, a great deal of recitative, and da capo arias where a repeat of the opening section was decorated to show off the virtuosity of the singer.

However, from the 1750s onwards he worked for the Habsburg court in Vienna where he brought about the series of reforms that earned him the respect of composers from Mozart to Wagner. Works like Orpheus and Eurydice and Alceste combined dramatic brevity with a newfound focus on exploring character.

In 1773 Gluck, now famous, moved to Paris where he set about combining the French penchant for choruses and dance with the lyricism of Italian opera. While some of his works were undeniable hits, he was always a controversial figure. The failure of his final opera in 1779 led him to quit France and return to Vienna where he died in 1787.

What happens in the story?

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a Thracian poet and musician whose wife Eurydice was killed by a snakebite on their wedding day. In a desperate attempt to bring her back, Orpheus ventures into the underworld.

Gluck’s opera opens with Orpheus and his friends in front of her tomb, already mourning her death. In this reimagined production, by director Yaron Lifschitz, we find Orpheus in an asylum, and venture deep into his full despair.

Who are the main characters?

Orpheus — a famous musician

Eurydice — his wife

Amore — Cupid, the god of love

What's the big hit?

‘Che farò senza Euridice?’ (What shall I do without Eurydice?) is one of opera’s most beautiful arias and best-known tunes.

In it, Orpheus laments that his wife has died for a second time. “Ah! I cannot go on,” he wails. “I can no longer expect for help or hope.”

Something to listen out for

Orpheus and Eurydice is Gluck’s most performed work and the first example of his important operatic reforms. Not only is the drama brief and to the point, there are just three characters and all subplots have been eliminated.

Instead of ‘dry’ sung recitatives accompanied by harpsichord and perhaps one or two other instruments, Gluck uses the full orchestra to accompany the text, creating seamless transitions where characters slip from sung conversation into arias and back out again.

Virtuoso singing with rapid runs and high notes for the sheer sake of it are out. Rather than the traditional three-part Baroque aria (as typified by the works of Vivaldi or Handel) Gluck constructs shorter forms. By focusing on the lyrical line, he achieves what was recognised at the time as a “noble simplicity”.

Although Orpheus was an Italian opera written in Vienna, Gluck was already being influenced by French opera with its choruses and dance interludes. In the original version there are brief dances, which Gluck expanded in the later French version into full scale ballets, including the famous Dance of the Blessed Spirits with its role for solo flute.

Orpheus, famous in mythology as a musician and poet, was frequently depicted carrying his lyre. Gluck uses a harp in the orchestra to achieve the appropriate effect.

This production is...

A thrillingly physical, genre-busting new staging created by Opera Queensland and Circa, a Brisbane-based and world-famous contemporary circus company.

In this production, French countertenor Christophe Dumaux sings Orpheus opposite Australian soprano Cathy-Di Zhang, who sings both roles of Eurydice and Amore (Cupid).

A little history

In 1755 Gluck was appointed composer to the Viennese Habsburg court, and by 1760 he was in charge of ballet and theatre music as well. In 1761 he collaborated for the first time with the dancer and ballet master Gasparo Angiolini. The result was Don Juan, or The Stone Guest, a narrative ballet combining dance and music in a new, dramatic way.

The storyline for Don Juan had been provided by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, an Italian librettist and good friend of Casanova. He had arrived in Vienna that year from Paris, full of ideas for how to reform opera. Calzabigi, Angiolini and Gluck were a natural fit, with Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice) their first operatic collaboration.

Calzabigi led the way with a terse Italian libretto. To unify locations, he moved the opening scene from Thrace to Campania, near to the legendary entrance to the Underworld. Gluck’s unbroken score was full of memorable melody and imaginative orchestral effects, including original use of harp, trombones, cornets and chalumeaux (a precursor of the clarinet). Angiolini, meanwhile, ensured the dance was tightly integrated with both drama and music.

Orpheus & Eurydice was first performed to celebrate Emperor Francis I’s name day. Its well-received premiere took place at Vienna’s Burgtheater on 5 October 1762 in the presence of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa.

The work went on to be performed all over the world, though seldom in the format as originally conceived by its creators.