![]() Orpheus uses his music to charm the demons and spirits into allowing him to passage to the underworld, but when he finds Eurydice, she insists that he look at her. Amore, the god of love, appears and offers him a chance to bring Eurydice back from the underworld - as long as he doesn't look at her until they've returned to the light. When Orpheus's wife, Eurydice, dies from snakebite on their wedding day, he falls into such despair that he wants to kill himself and join her in the underworld. The myth of Orpheus, son of Apollo and demigod of music, has been made into more than 70 operas over the last five centuries, but Gluck's remains the most popular. The orchestra sat alongside the stage in view of the audience - a very appropriate visual presence for an opera about the power of music. They were supported by three dancers, a small chorus, and ten members of the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Stephen Stubbs, the director of Pacific Music Works and a famous early music scholar and musician. The cast for the streamed performance, led by Christopher Ainslie as Orpheus, Ariana Wehr as Eurydice, and Sharleen Joynt as Amore, was excellent. ![]() Seattle Opera presented a shortened version of Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) in the intimate Tagney Jones Hall for those lucky enough to see the sold-out performances in January, and streamed it for the rest of us to watch at home in February.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |