Christoph Willibald Gluck

Orfeo ed Euridice, No. 19: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (from Wq. 41)

A radical innovation when it first appeared in 1762, Christoph Willibald Gluck's (1714-1787) dramatic opera based on the Greek myth of Orpheus resurfaced in a variety of later editions at the hand of its composer and later, during the Romantic period, advanced by musical figures such as Berlioz and Liszt. Set to an Italian libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, ORFEO ED EURIDICE (ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE) premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on October 5, 1762 with Empress Maria Theresa in attendance. Gluck constructed a second version (Wq. 41, retitled as ORPHÉE ET EURYDICE) twelve years later for the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris with a French libretto translated by Pierre-Louis Moline. The ballet in the second scene of Act II, expanded for the 1774 version, became the celebrated DANCE OF THE BLESSED SPIRITS, a pastoral evocation of Elysium, as Orfeo ventures there in search of his beloved. An arrangement for orchestra by Felix Mottl is presented in this Kalmus edition.

Instrumentation: 2.0+EH.0.0: 2.0.0.0: Str (4.4.3.3.3 in set). Reprint edition.