Opera 9
Soloists
Orchestre de L'Opéra de Lyon
John Eliot Gardiner
When I think of Gluck the words that come to mine are austere, classical, restrained. But those are the characteristics of his late reform operas. This recording reminds us that there is another side to his character. The opera is a very light hearted piece something between an opéra comique and a singspiel. It has a large number of comparatively short pieces, some of which are really little more than songs. There are lots of examples of Turkish music (i.e. drums cymbals and triangle) and generally the opera is high spirited and lots of fun. It is about as far removed from an opera like Iphigenia en Tauride as can be imagined.
There were a couple of familiar numbers in the score. Mozart wrote a set of variations on an Aria from the first act under the German title Unser dummer Pöbel meint, and there is a marvelous recording by Lucien Fugere of C’est un Torrent, which he recorded in 1929 at the age of 81. It is one of the best examples of a solid vocal training enabling superb singing, including wonderful breath control, to continue into old age.
Haydn wrote an opera based more or less on an Italian version of this libretto. It will be the next opera in this project.
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