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Project collects

• Performers of the premieres
• All performers and collaborators
• Persons are sorted by roles and birth years (often estimated)

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Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

• Opera in three acrs, in Italian
• Music by Christoph Willibald Gluck
• Libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus.
• 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
  • Sweden: Premier on 25 November 1773 at Stora Bollhuset, Stockholm, Carl Stenborg as Orpheus, Elisabeth Olin as Euridice, and Betty Olin as Amore, conducted by Francesco Antonio Baldassare Uttini.
  • 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.
  • Hungary: Premiere in 1776 at Eszterháza in Fertőd, conducted by Joseph Haydn
  • 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)
    • Gaetano Guadagni (Vienna premiere cast 5 October 1762)
    • Giuseppe Millico (Revised Italian version, Parma premiere cast 24 August 1769)
    • Joseph Legros (Revised French version, Paris premiere cast 2 August 1774)
    • Carl Stenborg
    • Adolphe Louis Nourrit
    • Pauline Viardot (Berlioz Paris edition 1859)
    • Dame Clara Butt, DBE
    • Ebe Stignani
    • Giulietta Simionato
    • Kathleen Ferrier
    • Léopold Simoneau
    • Fedora Barbieri
    • Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
    • Nicolai Gedda
    • Kerstin Meyer
    • Maureen Kathleen Stewart Forrester
    • Shirley Verrett
    • Janet Baker, born 1933
    • Júlia Várady
    • Roberto Alagna
  • Euridice, (lyric) soprano
    • Lucia Clavereau (Vienna premiere cast 5 October 1762)
    • Antonia Maria Girelli Aguilar (Revised Italian version, Parma premiere cast 24 August 1769)
    • Elisabeth Olin
    • Rosalie Levasseur (Revised French version, Paris premiere cast 2 August 1774)
    • Marie Sasse (Berlioz Paris edition 1859)
    • Erna Berger
    • Jarmila Daubková
    • Hilde Güden
    • Lisa Della Casa
    • Anneliese Rothenberger
    • Sena Jurinac
    • Pierrette Alarie
    • Maria Callas
    • Elisabeth Söderström
    • Anna Moffo
    • Ileana Cotrubaș
    • Lucia Popp
  • Amore (Cupid), (coloratura) soprano (en travesti)
    • Marianna Bianchi Tozzi (Vienna premiere cast 5 October 1762)
    • Felicita Suardi (Revised Italian version, Parma premiere cast 24 August 1769)
    • Madeleine Sophie Arnould (Revised French version, Paris premiere cast 2 August 1774)
    • Betty Olin
    • Marie Marimon (Berlioz Paris edition 1859)
    • Hilde Güden
    • Anneliese Rothenberger
    • Pierrette Alarie
    • Graziella Sciutti
    • Roberta Peters
    • Edita Gruberová
• Chorus and dancers: shepherds, shepherdesses, nymphs, demons, furies, happy spirits, heroes, and heroines
  • Dancers
    • Anne Friederike Vestris (Vienna premiere 5 October 1762)
• Scenographers
  • Giovanni Maria II Quaglio (Vienna premiere 5 October 1762)
  • Charles-Antoine Cambon (1859 Premiere of the Berlioz revision)
  • Joseph Thierry (1859 Premiere of the Berlioz revision)
• Costume designors
• Stage directors
  • Conte Giacomo Filippo Durazzo (Vienna premiere 5 October 1762)
• Choreographers
  • Gasparo Angiolini (Vienna premiere 5 October 1762)
  • Lucien Petipa (1859 Berlioz revision)
  • John Neumeier (born 1939) with the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neumeier
• Conductors
  • 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)
  • Johann Christian Bach in London 1770
  • Francesco Antonio Baldassare Uttini in Sweden 1773
  • Louis-Joseph Francœur (Revised French version, Paris premiere 2 August 1774)
  • Joseph Haydn at Eszterháza, Hungary 1776
  • Hector Berlioz (Berlioz Paris edition 1859)
  • Franz Liszt
  • Adolphe Deloffre
  • Arturo Toscanini
  • Pierre Monteux
  • Fritz Stiedry
  • Wilhelm Furtwängler
  • Hans Rosbaud
  • Sir John Barbirolli, CH
  • Antonio Pedrotti
  • Renato Fasano
  • Herbert von Karajan
  • Erich Leinsdorf
  • Georg Solti
  • Ferenc Károly Fricsay
  • Sir Charles Mackerras
  • Karl Richter
  • Michael Andreas Gielen
  • Seiji Ozawa
  • Arnold Otto Natanael Östman
  • Jesús López Cobos
  • Jean-Claude Malgoire
  • Riccardo Muti
  • Hans Vonk

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