Alceste (It)

Tragedie-opera in three acts-Tragédie-opéra in three acts. Paris Version 1776.In 1774 Gluck had committed himself to supplying six stage works to the Academie Royale de Musique in Paris. This job he fulfilled partially by reworking works which had already been premiered in Vienna.In the case of the Paris Alceste (1776) which Gluck had also originally composed for Vienna (1767) the composer created a completely new version which was to become the prototype of the so-called reform opera. The libretto was translated from the former Italian into French and was altered at the same time but also the music was fundamentally changed: Gluck newlycomposed the recitatives and rearranged enlarged or cut scenes.The initial rejection of the work by the audience caused him to further alter the third act for example by adding the character of Hercules as Alceste's saviour. In this form the opera finally became a big success.- Full score (BA2291) available for sale; performance material (BA2291-72) available for hire.

Handel who wrote music for royal fireworks and water procession had the most singular of creative stories with his work Alceste. Composed as incidental music for a play by Toby Smollett which was never performed and is now lost Alceste is the only occurrence of Handel’s having composed theatrical music of this sort. It may be that the scale and power of Handel’s own music was the main factor in the abandonment of the production. At any rate Handel retained the score reusing some of it for other works. The movement titles are retained but can only suggest the theatrical activity that they were intended to enlarge upon. The aria Gentle Morpheus’s StatelyBeauty ranks among Handel’s loveliest work though the entire score is replete with Handel’s magnificent gifts as a composer and his mature artistry.

Contents : Verdi: Rittorna vincitor! (Aida) - Oh patria mia (Aida) - Tu che le vanita (Don Carlo) - Ernani, involami (Ernani) - Madre, pietosa Vergine (La Forza del Destino) - Pace, pace Mio Dio (La Forza del Destino) - Salce, Salce and Ave Maria (Otello) - Come in quest' ora bruna (Simon Boccanegra) - Tacea la Notte placida (Il Trovatore) - D'amor sull'ali rosee (Il Trovatore) - Gluck: Divinites du Styx (Alceste) - Smetana: Marenka's Aria (The Bartered Bride) - Puccini: Mi chiamano Mimì (La Bohème) - In quelle trine morbide (Manon Lescaut) - Bizet: Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante (Carmen) - Massenet: Pleurez! pleurez, mes yeux! (Le Cid) - Il est doux, il est bon (Herodiade) - Obeissons quand leur voix appelle (Manon) - Offenbach: Elle a fui, la tourterelle (Les Contes D'Hoffmann) - Mozart: Come scoglio (Così fan tutte) - Non mi dir (Don Giovanni) - Deh vieni, non tardar (Le Nozze di Figaro) - Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro (Le Nozze di Figaro) - Ach, ich fühl's (Die Zauberflöte) - Tchaikovsky: Tatiana's Letter Scene (Eugene Onegin) - Gounod: The King of Thule and the Jewel Song (Faust) - Beethoven: Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin? (Fidelio) - J. Strauss: Klange der Heimat (Die Fledermaus) - Mein Herr Marquis (Adele's Laughing Song) (Die Fledermaus) - Wagner: Traft ihr das Schiff? (Der Fliegender Hollander) - Einsam in truben Tagen (Lohengrin) - Euch Luften (Lohengrin) - Dich, theure Halle (Tannhäuser) - Allmacht'ge Jungfrau (Tannhäuser) - Mild und leise (Tristan und Isolde) - Der Manner Sippe (Die Walkure) - C.M. von Weber: Und ob die Wolke (Der Freischütz) - Wie nahte mir der Schlummer (Der Freischütz) - Ozean! du Ungeheuer (Oberon) - Meyerbeer: Parmi les pleurs (Les Huguenots) - Leoncavallo: Stridono lassu (Pagliacci) - Monsigny: Il regardait mon bouquet (Le Roi et le Fermier).

Hector Berlioz was enthralled by Gluck and heard his masterpieces Iphigénie en Tauride Orphée Alceste and Armide in Paris.The original Italian version of Orphée gives the title role to a castrato. Gluck rewrote the part for high tenor for the performances in France (1774). In 1859 Berlioz arranged the opera so that Orpheus could be sung by the great mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot with whom he worked closely at that time. He changed the formal design by dividing the work into four instead of three acts and placing the scenes in Hades and the Elysian Fields in separate acts. He also changed certain sections of Orpheus?s part mainly in therecitatives and fundamentally reworked Gluck?s orchestration.Berlioz?s version of Orphée is published as volume 22a of the New Berlioz Edition. This vocal score is based on that volume.- Vocal score based on the Urtext of the ?New Berlioz Edition?.- Original French text underlaid with singing German translation.- Trilingual Preface (Ger./Eng./Fr.).- Performance material available for hire.