Chr. W. Gluck – Orphée et Euridice

In 2011 I will direct Gluck’s »Orphée« for the Festival of Early Music in Torroella y Montegrí, a Catalonian village very near Púbol, the home of Salvador Dalí.

Ottavio Dantone will conduct his Academia Byzantina and we have chosen the French version which casts a baritone in the role of Orpheé.

For me, the story of Orphée is less the story of a musician, but rather that of a young man’s voyage of self discovery and growth to maturity, a process which involves sacrifice, introspection and finally acceptance (here one can draw parallels with Wagner’s »Parsifal«).

The musical context demands a closer look at Gluck’s musical language, which uses sublimely touching effects to express the mysterious motion of the human soul.