# Any thoughts on Iphigenia in Tauris?



## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

We'll be seeing this at the Canadian Opera Company next week - stangely enough, the second of two Gluck operas that the COC has done in the past year. I loved Orfeo ed Eurydice. In next week's production, Susan Graham is playing Iphigenia. 

I'm going into this opera cold - other than knowing the plot. I don't want to watch any excerpts, but I'd love to hear other members' opinions on this opera.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

waldvogel said:


> We'll be seeing this at the Canadian Opera Company next week - stangely enough, the second of two Gluck operas that the COC has done in the past year. I loved Orfeo ed Eurydice. In next week's production, Susan Graham is playing Iphigenia.
> 
> I'm going into this opera cold - other than knowing the plot. I don't want to watch any excerpts, but I'd love to hear other members' opinions on this opera.


It's a good one. Not as beautiful as _Orfée et Euridice,_ but still very good.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Gluck (1714 - 1787) is now best remembered as one who tried to reform opera because he was in between the Baroque _opera seria_ "transitional period" into Classical.

_Iphigénie en Tauride _(1779) is a good opera and is quite well known and performed today though not as popular as the _Orphée_ versions. I have two versions of _Iphigénie_ on recording: a CD recording by Boston Baroque/Martin Pearlman and a DVD version by La Scintilla/William Christie (both on period instruments). Without comparing with other operas by Gluck, it's a lovely piece of work. With Gluck's operas, you come listening to a more natural flow of arias, which was what he was trying to "reform".


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

waldvogel said:


> We'll be seeing this at the Canadian Opera Company next week - stangely enough, the second of two Gluck operas that the COC has done in the past year. I loved Orfeo ed Eurydice. In next week's production, *Susan Graham is playing Iphigenia.
> *
> I'm going into this opera cold - other than knowing the plot. I don't want to watch any excerpts, but I'd love to hear other members' opinions on this opera.


She is the bomb in this role. I'm envious.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

I heard Graham's Iphigénie this year, in the same staging (that is very good, one of Carsen's best). She was correct, though a little more imagination in her phrasing would have been welcome.

The opera itself is a must.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Thanks, everyone. I'm looking forward to seeing it next week. The COC website called Iphigenia in Tauris "the greatest opera that you haven't heard of". When the COC hired a new artistic director in 2007, it was on his list of operas that he would most like to have performed in Toronto. 

I'll do a review after we've seen it.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

I like all the combinations of Gluck & Gardiner.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

We saw Iphigenie en Tauride last night in Toronto, and both Parsival and I were very impressed. It's a tremendous homage to the original Greek tragedy - so much so that I would describe Carsen's production as cathartic. On a blank, charcoal-grey stage in Act I the dancers painted the names Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Iphigenia on the walls. Meanwhile, the name of Orestes was projected onto the stage.

Carsen uses dancers to act out the role of the chorus, keeping the singers in the orchestra pit. It worked out really well, as the dancers had some moments where they were somehow bashing each other around gracefully. The Furies were choreographed amazingly well - poor Orestes couldn't escape being crowded by them. The monochromatic look - all of the possible shades from medium gray to black were used, with occasional orange-red lighting. It was bleak, yet wonderful.

The music was excellent - in my opinion, better than the music of Orfeo ed Eurydice. At its best it measured up to Mozart's Idomeneo. I had to look up when Mozart took his last trip to Paris - he wouldn't have seen _Iphigenie_ on that trip, but somehow I think he must have seen the score somewhere before Idomeneo premiered in Munich in January 1781.

There were no secco recitatives and no da capo arias at all in this opera - and there were features that I'd never believe could have occurred in such an early opera. Orestes had an aria where he sang a plain melody about how calm he was, over an orchestral accompaniment which was anything but calm - Gluck was showing us that Orestes was lying through his teeth. Gluck used trombones, clarinets, cymbals, triangle, and a wind machine - no wonder Berlioz thought that he was such a great orchestrator.

Susan Graham was simply wonderful. A perfect performance, except that I couldn't understand her French - and it didn't matter a bit. She's an excellent actress. Russell Braun, playing Orestes, was also at his best.

Next week - Rigoletto.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sounds like a wonderful evening - and I'm glad you liked Susan Graham.


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## AnaMendoza (Jul 29, 2011)

waldvogel said:


> There were no secco recitatives and no da capo arias at all in this opera - and there were features that I'd never believe could have occurred in such an early opera. Orestes had an aria where he sang a plain melody about how calm he was, over an orchestral accompaniment which was anything but calm - Gluck was showing us that Orestes was lying through his teeth.


There's a great story about that aria--how, at the first rehearsal, orchestra members looked at the nervous accompaniment that was assigned to the words "peace reenters my heart", stopped, and asked: "Do we have the right music for this?" Gluck's response was: "He's lying. He killed his mother. Keep going."


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

waldvogel said:


> *There were no secco recitatives and no da capo arias at all in this opera - and there were features that I'd never believe could have occurred in such an early opera. *Orestes had an aria where he sang a plain melody about how calm he was, over an orchestral accompaniment which was anything but calm - Gluck was showing us that Orestes was lying through his teeth. Gluck used trombones, clarinets, cymbals, triangle, and a wind machine - no wonder Berlioz thought that he was such a great orchestrator.


Exactly the reason why Gluck is the greatest operatic reformer before Wagner.

Also, everything gets better with trombones. No wonder you liked it.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Aksel said:


> Also, everything gets better with trombones.


I've tested that theory. Suffice it to say . . . um . . . it's not always true.


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## MAnna (Sep 19, 2011)

Saw Iphigenie en Tauride in San Francisco a few years back starring Susan Graham and she was fantastic in the role. I was/am a relative newbie to the opera and I said to a woman sitting next to me that I expected the male lead to be a countertenor and she said that French opera didn't employ them. :scold:


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

It is the only opera with harpscichord recitatives I like together with Rakes Progress.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

I saw the Carsen "chalkboard" version in Chicago in the early 2000's and the more literal and sumptuous Steven Wadsworth production in New York, both featuring Susan Graham. I liked that, as Waldvogel points out, you don't have to make the mental adjustment for the conventions of baroque opera. In that sense it feels straightfoward and modern. I have quite a vivid memory of the Met production because it was the first and last time we sprung for Parterre Box seats. We were in the first box from the stage and Placido Domingo, in one of his early baritone roles as Oreste, was singing chained to a wall not twenty-five feet from us. Heaven.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I saw the elaborate production in Seattle which they did also at the Met. A lively production, like that one, can really breathe life into this work. I enjoyed it.


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