Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

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Music reviews of Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

Music Review: Men singing Orfeo/Orphée
Rating: 4 Stars

The role of Orfeo was written for an alto castrato so - since this voice-type is now happily unavailable - has usually been sung by either female contraltos or mezzo-sopranos until recent years, when a growing number of counter-tenors have joined the ladies. However, not caring to listen to any of the currently available CDs by the girls, and having a strong aversion to counter-tenors generally (although prepared to make an exception for Andreas Scholl) I chose this unique performance by a noted artist of the past.

Fischer-Dieskau must have greatly admired the music of "Orfeo" and wasn't about to let the fact that he was a baritone stand in the way of his singing the title role, he simply transposed the part down an octave! And, not content with making a recording in 1957 (in German, which - with the transposition - must have had Gluck spinning in his grave!), he repeated the exercise ten years later, this time in Italian, which is the version now available on CD.

Fine singer though Fischer-Dieskau was, this performance really is only a curiosity and doesn't work, because Orfeo was written for a high voice - whether male or female - and a baritone voice is simply too dark and heavy for Gluck's music this time. (Oreste, in Gluck's "Iphigénia en Tauride" is a baritone role which has some very attractive music.) I have to say, too, that I found the Italian of both chorus and soloists seemed very indistinct at times, and had me reaching for a libretto!

The Parisian dislike of castrati, not to mention roles sung 'en travesti', led to the rewriting of the main role for the leading 'haute-contre' tenor Le Gros (who could reliably reach high E-flat in old pitch) and Orfeo finally became the masculine Orphée, with some incredibly beautiful - although often difficult - music to sing.

However, due to the chronically short supply of true 'haute-contres', the ladies also usurped the role of Orphée, followed by the counter-tenors, and so there are just two examples currently available of Orphée being sung by a tenor, one being the 1956 recording by Léopold Simoneau, which is still highly regarded - despite the bravura aria from the end of Act I being cut - and was reissued on CD two years ago.
The other - a performance on video of The Australian Opera's 1993 production of "Orphée et Eurydice" - is sung in the original 'haute-contre' key by the talented young Australian tenor David Hobson, who tackled not only the most difficult arias successfully, but recreated a virile, masculine Orphée who might have had Gluck nodding in satisfaction.

Description of Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

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