FULL ORFEO ed EURIDICE (Bertoni) Aarau 2025 Sarah Widmer, Simone Fischer, David Ferreira

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: ORFEO ed EURIDICE  
• Composer: Bertoni Ferdinando   
• Libretto: Ranieri de' Calzabigi    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Kultur und Kongresshaus Aarau, Switzerland  
• Recorded: March 22, 2025
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Sarah Widmer, Simone Fischer, David Ferreira
• Conductor: Michael Schraner  
• Orchestra: Orchester der Alten Kanti Aarau  
• Chorus: Chor der Alten Kanti Aarau  
• Chorus Master: Simone Fischer  
• Stage Director: Andrea Santschi, Eva Welter / Bühne: / Kostümbild: / Lichtkonzept:   
• Stage Designer: Michael Bouvard  
• Costume Designer: Julia Zangger  
• Lighting Designer: Eva Welter, Michael Bouvard  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Alte Kantonsschule Aarau  
• Date Published: 2025  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, itsubs, gensubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera by Ferdinando Bertoni based on a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi , which had already been set to music by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1762) and by Antonio Tozzi (1775). It was performed for the first time at the Teatro (Gallo) San Benedetto in Venice on 3 January 1776 and was an occasion to celebrate the abandonment of the stage by the great castrato Gaetano Guadagni who had also created the same role in the previous versions by Gluck and Tozzi.

  History
  The opera was an extraordinary success and Bertoni enthusiastically informed Father Martini that Emperor Joseph II had commissioned the printing of the entire score. Its success continued throughout Europe in the late 18th century, but the opera was later eclipsed by its sister work by Gluck which remained in the repertoire thanks above all to its French version .

  The musical text consists of the usual libretto with a happy ending signed by Calzabigi: the availability of the great tenor Giacomo David at the Teatro San Benedetto , however, led to the name of the third protagonist being changed, from Amore , a youthful divinity usually played by sopranos in drag , to Hymen , a deity of a more mature age and therefore more suited to the dark voice of the baritone tenor . The part of Euridice was played by the soprano Camilla Passi Sarti .

  The performance of Bertoni’s opera was also the occasion for controversy on the part of Gluck’s staunch Parisian followers , who accused Bertoni of plagiarism: in part this was a reaction to revelations in the French press according to which it was Gluck who had placed the bravura aria “So che dal ciel discende” from Bertoni’s Tancredi at the end of the first act of the Parisian Orfeo , obviously provided with a new text (“L’espoir renaît dans mon âme”). In the end, however, Bertoni candidly acknowledged his debts to Gluck, noting: “Men of just and fine discernment will be able to recognize the difference in the rest” .

  Plot
  The theatrical action is divided into three acts.

  In the first act, Eurydice’s funeral ceremony takes place , interrupted several times by Orpheus himself who desperately evokes his beloved wife, until Hymen tells him of the possibility, granted to him by the gods, of bringing his wife back to life on condition that he does not turn to look at her during the entire journey back from Hades .

  The second act takes place in the Underworld where Orpheus, thanks to the sound of his lyre and his singing, manages to fascinate the infernal deities and convince them to return Eurydice to him.

  In the third act, Orpheus guides Eurydice toward the light, but he cannot resist her desperate pleas and, turning to look at her, causes her death again. Orpheus weeps over his bride’s body and, calling upon her, decides to take his own life, when Hymen intervenes again, informing him that the gods, moved by his love, have decided to return him to his beloved forever.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

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