Composer of the Week - Christoph Willibald Gluck - Episode 4

Donald Macleod looks at Gluck's decision in 1774 to apply his radical aesthetic ideals within the narrow traditions of French opera. Triumph overcame initial hostility with the Paris premiere of Iphigenie en Aulide and a French version of Orfeo. Air gai (Danse, Act 2, Iphigenie en Aulide) Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) Orphee et Euridice (Act 2, scenes 1-4) Orphee ...... Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Eurydice ...... Barbara Hendricks (soprano) Monteverdi Choir Orchestra de l'Opera de Lyon John Eliot Gardiner (conductor) Iphigenie en Aulide (Act 3) Iphigenie ...... Lynne Dawson (soprano) Arcas ...... Rene Schirrer (baritone) Achille ...... John Aler (tenor) Clytemnestre ...... Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano) Calchas ...... Gilles Cachemaille (bass-baritone) Diane ...... Guillemette Laurens (mezzo-soprano) Agamemnon ...... Jose van Dam (bass-baritone) Monteverdi Choir Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon John Eliot Gardiner (conductor).