Word: orfeo
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Throughout its 300-year history, the Paris Opera has probably boasted more foibles than any other company-and, given the vicissitudes of the average opera company, that is saying a lot. Back in the 1770s, when it got ready to put on Gluck's landmark opera Orfeo and Euridice, 18th century male-chauvinist Parisians balked at having a male contralto play the hero, considering that an affront to their manhood; poor Gluck had to rewrite the part for tenor. In the 19th century, even a Wagner or a Verdi had to include a ballet in his opera or risk...
...situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity of ornaments." Although Italian prima donnas pay little attention to their words, Gluck heaped praises on the "heartfelt language" of his librettist, Ranieri Calzabigi, who also collaborated on Gluck's first big success, Orfeo ed Euridice...
...young, vibrant ensemble with his familiar spirit, dignity and eloquence of movement. One new Limn work, The Unsung, a choreographically skillful paean to America's vanquished Indian heroes, was imbued with all of the solemnity of an Indian sun dance and, unfortunately, much of its tedium. But Orfeo, a free, ever-unwinding retelling of the old legend set to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11, summoned up the poetic suggestiveness and exquisite line that characterized his first big success, The Moor's Pavane, which is still a favorite with the American Ballet Theater. Less striking but still...
Died. Fausto Cleva, 69, Trieste-born conductor associated with New York's Metropolitan Opera for the past half-century; of a heart attack suffered while conducting Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; in Athens. Cleva's career got off to an auspicious start when the maestro who was scheduled to lead a 1920 performance in Ravenna, Italy, of Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West suddenly quit; the opera manager asked where he could find a substitute at the last minute. "Here's your man," said Puccini, pointing to 18-year-old Cleva...
...less than had appeared likely during the gloomiest weeks of struggle. Most of the star singers are available, but fitting them into an impromptu schedule will be a computer-size job. The delay has ruled out four fancy new productions: Herbert von Karajan's long-awaited Siegfried, Orfeo ed Euridice, Weber's gloomily romantic Der Freischutz, and a Russian-language Boris Godunov. But the Met's first week will probably open with Aïda and Leontyne Price, and there are plans for brand-new productions by Franco Zeffirelli of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, along with Renata...