René Jacobs - Gluck: Orfeo & Euridice (2001)

When music began to speak to the heart.
''Music owes Gluck a stroke of genius… that is, in moments of pathos, to have the accompaniment express what the soul is feeling, while the words attempt to hide it'', wrote Madame de Genlis, overcome with emotion. It is true that the most famous of Gluck’s opere serie opened up a vast new field of expression. Late in the Romantic era, it still constituted a storehouse of inexhaustible techniques which was drawn on by Berlioz, Wagner and many others. Those who commissioned the original Orfeo, azione teatrale premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater on 5 October 1762, were shrewd judges of Gluck and Calzabigi’s potential for finding a more radical solution to the operatic question than their predecessors. The interpretation of René Jacobs, which he performed several times in concert with an exceptional cast, has been greeted with enthusiasm for its forceful recreation of the extraordinary emotional power of the original score.