Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice (ed. Berlioz)

Christoph Willibald Gluck was a groundbreaking thinker in 18th-century opera, shaking up French and Italian traditions alike. Yet after his death, his operas were largely forgotten until the French composer Hector Berlioz spearheaded revivals in Paris, starting with the devastatingly beautiful Orphée et Eurydice. Berlioz reworked the castrato role of Orpheus for the celebrated mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot – a role taken in this 2018 production from Paris's Opéra Comique by rising star Marianne Crebassa, alongside Hélène Guilmette (Eurydice) and Lea Desandre (Amor). Raphaël Pichon conducts this critically acclaimed cast and his renowned period-instrument group Ensemble Pygmalion in a stylish, subtle staging directed by Aurélien Bory.