Iphigénie in Zürich with Christie

[uffeviking]

And with Rodney Gilfry! I didn't know he has such a powerful voice! The only other video - and CD - I have with him is in Franz Lehár's Die Lustige Witwe, also in a Zürich performance. Quite a difference between Graf Danilo Danilowitsch and Orestes, a very pleasant surprise.

Gluck is not one of my favorite composers, but I was willing to give this famous opera a chance, mainly because it is conducted by William Christie and his Orchestra La Scintilla. He didn't let me down; he even managed to make the monotonous and boring Gluck rather interesting for me. The excellent soprano Juliette Galstian has a lot to do with making the performance enjoyable. Deon Van Der Walt as Pylades partnered very well with Gilfry.

Claus Guth directs the action very conservatively, a lot of gestures, pantomimes by both chorus and soloists went right past me - or maybe they are not supposed to mean anything anyhow, besides adding movements to a static presentation. - Costumes are either totally white in the beginning or totally black the second half but fortunately the set designer added colour with a shining natural wood coloured parquet floor and some in the background. The bright sunset ending of an ocean view was startling though.

I don't mean to knock this performance, Gluck devotees I am sure will love it, to me the stark drama of the Iphigénie en Touride story is more subdued than I would like to see it. Maestro Christie and his talented musicians are doing their best, to add some kick to it.