Repertoire
Gluck: Don Juan, Wq. 52
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice, Wq. 30 (selection of arias)
Mozart: Overture of Idomeneo, KV 366
Mozart: Recitative and Rondo “Ch’io mi scordi di te?” – “Non temer, amato bene” for soprano and orchestra, KV 505
Mozart: “Parto, ma tu ben mio” – Aria of La Clemenza di Tito, KV 621
Artists
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)
Julia Lezhneva, soprano
Dani Espasa, conductor
Program
PROGRAMBallet as a genre was not only a superb creative test laboratory for Christoph Willibald Gluck, but also a space for dramatic expression. Don Juan, his ballet-pantomime in three acts, was startling to audiences of the day, as the opera Orfeo ed Euridice had also been, both in formal terms and for its innovative approach to some sections of the orchestra. While Don Juan manages to bring the very essence of drama to instrumental music, in the arias from Orfeo ed Euridice, the audience can enjoy gems from an opera that is a paradigmatic example of Gluck’s ideals, used to express simplicity, sophistication and refinement.
In the field of opera, Gluck blazed a trail that W.A. Mozart would follow with admirable originality. Idomeneo is a superb opera seria by Mozart, premiered with great success in Munich in January 1781. It marks a highpoint in the composer’s work and in his formal and orchestral discoveries, as appreciated from the solemn overture onward. Based on the same text used to add an extra fragment to Idomeneo five years after its premiere, Mozart wrote one of his most inspired arias –”Ch’io mi scordi di te?”–, in this case a concert aria for soprano, piano and orchestra. As for “Parto, ma tu ben mio”, while this might seem to be a concert aria, it is in fact one of the most famous arias from La Clemenza di Tito, where Sesto, urged by Vitelia with whom he is besotted, agrees to end Tito’s life.
