A performance of Gluck's revolutionary opera, given in March in the Olivier Messiaen Concert in Paris, the city where it was first heard in 1779. Iphigenie changed the course of opera: out went stylised musical forms and cardboard cutout characters, in came vivid action and emotions.

Based on Euripides's play, the story takes place during the Trojan War and follows the fate of priestess Iphigenia (daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra), her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades, all under threat of death from Thoas, a barbaric tyrant, in Tauris, in the land of the Scythians.

Les Musiciens du Louvre Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Marc Minkowski Producer John Thornley