Orphée et Eurydice

Orphée et Eurydice - Week 3!

Welcome students and teachers to Opera Online. This week we will begin to look at the singers behind the roles in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice; starting with mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose who will play the role of Orphée.

You Tube Clip of the Week

The famous lamentation aria of Orpheus from Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice,"J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" performed by the marvellous Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova.

Just after being reunited with Eurydice, Orpheus is not allowed to look at her. If he does, she will be whisked away back to the nether world. Frustrated by Eurydice's fears that he will not look at her, he impulsively turns around and sees his wife as she is sent back to Hades. Orpheus has lost her forever. He pours out his heart in this lament. It's unique in that it's scored in musical key of C major which is usually thought of as a "happy" key signature. Do you think the aria is moving and sad? Do you think it sounds too happy? Log your thoughts in the comments section.

Web Site of the Week

Ruxandra Donose will play Orphée in the Opera Company's upcoming production of Orphée et Eurydice. She is well known to opera and concert audiences throughout the United States and Europe. In fact she's sung quite a few times here with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in such works as Così fan tutte, The Barber of Seville, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Cinderella, Ariadne auf Naxos, and more. To find out more about this renowned singer visit her website.

Opera on the Air
Saturday, June 5 at 1pm WRTI Radio will broadcast the Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi conducted by Renato Palumbo starring Salvatore Licitra as Ernani, Sondra Radvanovsky as Elvira, Boaz Daniel as Carlo and Giacomo Prestia as Sliva.

Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org.

Until next week…

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