The Belgian musician, René Jacobs, conducts a single performance of the opera by the German composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck, with the libretto by Raniero di Calzabigi, based on the Greek myth of Orpheus, on 13 June at the Teatro Real.

It tells how Orpheus, son of Apollo, marries Eurydice, a beautiful nymph from the Thrace valleys. However, one day, she is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. Grief-stricken, Orpheus decides to descend into the Underworld, facing various dangers. Once there, his music moves the leaders of the underworld, Hades and Persephone.

They both grant Eurydice the opportunity to return to life on the condition that Orpheus must walk ahead of her and not look back until they reach the world and she is fully bathed in sunlight. When they have almost got there, Orpheus turns round to check that his wife is following him, but Eurydice still had a foot in the shade and she fades away never to return again.

Written in 1762, the production is considered to be Gluck’s most popular work and one of the most influential in German opera.  It was also used by the author as an example of the opera reform, replacing the arias and choruses with shorter and united pieces to form wider structural units, leaving the traditional recitative secco and the arias da capo to one side, influencing the design of new works.

Born in Ghent (Belgium) in 1946, René Jacobs is a countertenor and Baroque and classical opera orchestra conductor who works with ensembles such as the Concerto Köln, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin or the Nederlands Kamerkoor. He is also an interpretation and Baroque singing style teacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and artistic director of the Innsbruck Festival of Ancient Music (Austria).

Artistic File:

• Conductor - René Jacobs
• Choir - Rias Kammerchor
• Orchestra - Freiburger Barockorchester

Cast:

• Orpheus - Helena Rasker
• Eurydice - Polina Pastirchak
• Amore - Kateryna Kasper

Programme:

Azione teatrale in Three Acts

• Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
• Libretto by Ranieri di Calzabigi
• Premièred at the  Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762
• Premièred at the Teatro Real on 8 January 1890
• Opera In concerto version