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Title: Orpheus and Eurydice (eng), Orpheus und Eurydike (german), Orphée et Euridice (french)
Time and place: Timeless mythical level. The myth of Orpheus originally took place in Thrace, but the librettist Calzabigi relocated it to Lake Avernus, which in ancient Rome was regarded as the entrance to the underworld.
Premieres and different editions
Austria: World Premiere of the ORIGINAL EDITION on 5 October 1762, conducted by Gluck at the Burgtheater, Vienna, in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa
Italy: Premiere of the revised Italian version on 24 August 1769 in Parma, conducted by Gluck
UK: Premier on April 7, 1770 at the King's Theatre in London, with alterations by, and conducted by Johann Christian Bach
France: Premiere of the SECOND EDITION, the revised French version on 2 August 1774 at the Palais des Tuileries of the Royal Academy of Music, Paris. French librettist was Pierre Louis Moline.
Spain: Premiere on 4 Nov 1780 at the Teatro de la Santa Cruz of Barcelona, sung in Italian
France: 1859. The BERLIOZ EDITION (Hector Berlioz with collaboration by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Léon Carvalho, and Camille Saint-Saëns) was first presented at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, on 18 November 1859 with Pauline Viardot as Orphée, Marie Sasse as Eurydice, Marie Ernestine Marimon as L'Amour, Mlle Moreau as L'Ombre, and Adolphe Deloffre as the conductor. The sets were designed by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry, and the choreography was by Lucien Petipa. (The seventeen-year-old Jules Massenet was the orchestra's timpanist. During the rehearsals Berlioz had complimented the young player on the accuracy of his tuning.) The production was a popular and critical success, filling the house every night, and was given a total of 138 times by the company.
USA: Premiere on May 25, 1863 in New York at the first building of the Winter Garden Theatre, starring Váli, Rotter, and Geary.
The RICORDI EDITION for contralto, published in 1889 by Ricordi (Giulio Ricordi), became the most popular. Orpheo's part has sometimes been transposed for tenor voice, and even for a baritone. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey are two notable baritones who have performed the role in Germany. Fischer-Dieskau recorded the opera several times.
Roles
Orfeo, alto castrato (Vienna premiere 1762), soprano castrato (Parma premiere 1769), haute-contre (high tenor, French premiere 1774), mezzo-soprano (Berlioz version 1859), contralto (even transposed to tenor or baritone, Ricordi edition 1889)
Christoph Willibald Gluck (conducted the world premiere on 5 October 1762 and also the revised Italian version of the Parma premiere on 24 August 1769)
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