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Gluck - Iphigenie, La Rencontre | Warner 2564695620

Gluck - Iphigenie, La Rencontre

New Item

Label: Warner

Cat No: 2564695620

Barcode: 0825646956203

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 4

Release Date: 15th September 2008

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Artists

Jose van Dam
Anne Sofie von Otter
John Aler
Lynne Dawson
Claudine Le Coz
Catherine Dubosc
Sophie Marin-Degor
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre de l’Opera de Lyon
English Baroque Soloists

Conductor

John Eliot Gardiner

Works

Gluck, Christoph Willibald

Don Juan, Wq52
Iphigenie en Aulide
La Rencontre imprevue, ou Les Pelerins de la Mecque, Wq32

Artists

Jose van Dam
Anne Sofie von Otter
John Aler
Lynne Dawson
Claudine Le Coz
Catherine Dubosc
Sophie Marin-Degor
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre de l’Opera de Lyon
English Baroque Soloists

Conductor

John Eliot Gardiner

About

'Iphigenie en Aulide' was the opera with which Gluck set out to conquer the lyric stage in Paris in April 1774. France was the only country to resist the fashion for Italian opera that prevailed everywhere else in civilised Europe in the first half of the 18th century and to develop instead its own national form of serious opera, the tragedie lyrique.

As an acknowledged master of the Italian manner, therefore, Gluck's appearance in Paris was bound to be controversial… He had a useful ally in Paris, however, in the person of the newly crowned young queen Marie Antoinette, who had previously, as an Austrian archduchess, been one of his singing pupils at the Viennese court, and could always quell dissent during the long and stormy rehearsals for the new opera by threatening to fetch the queen. In the event the opera was a great success and Gluck quickly became established as the new saviour of French opera, a worthy inheritor of the mantle of Lully and Rameau.

…the performance becomes steadily more intense, as the singers rise to the challenge of the increasingly powerful music. Anne Sofie von Otter, sings her pathetic ''Par un pere cruel'' with some depth of feeling and brings real force to her great outburst, ''Ma fille!'', as she imagines her daughter on the sacrificial altar and then calls on the gods, in strongly focused, passionate tones…

Lynne Dawson does some fine things as Iphigeneia, her slightly grainy and intense sound carrying much emotional weight… John Aler's Achilles seems to me an unqualified success, with just the right blend of the heroic and the graceful... He has a fine warlike air, delivered with splendid energy… Jose van Dam rises to his magnificent monologue at the end of Act 2… he uses a wide range of tone and does not fail to convey the agonies Agamemnon undergoes. There are some excellent performances in the smaller parts…” - Gramophone

Gardiner here reconstructs the score as presented in the first revival of 1775… The darkness of the piece is established at the very start… The performance is crowned by the superb ensemble singing of the Monteverdi Choir in the many choruses.” - Penguin Guide ***

Iphigénie en Aulide
- Agamemnon: Jose van Dam
- Clytemnestra: Anne Sofie von Otter
- Iphigenie: Lynne Dawson
- Achilles: John Aler
- Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre De L’Opera de Lyon

La Rencontre imprévue ou les Pelerins de la Mecque
(The Unforseen Encouter, or, The Pigrims to Mecca)
- Rezia: Lynne Dawson
- Balkis: Claudine Le Coz
- Dardane: Catherine Dubosc
- Amine: Sophie Marin-Degor
Orchestre De L’Opera de Lyon

Don Juan
English Baroque Soloists

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