Opera seria in three acts
Music by Ferdinando BertonI revised and edited by REMO GIAZOTTO
Libretto by RANIERO DA CALZABIGI sung in Italian
First broadcast in this country Cast in order of singing:
Nymphs, shepherds, spectres. furies, blessed spirits CHORUS OF THE
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI Association OF NAPLES
Chorus-Master, Gennaro D'Onofrlo
ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI ORCHESTRA OF NAPLES
Conducted by CARLO FRANCI
The action takes place in legendary times
ACT 1 The tomb of Euridice
ACT 2
Scene I The banks of the River
Styx
Scene 2 The Elysian Fields
ACT 3
Scene 1 A subterranean vault
Scene 2 The temple of Imeneo
Recording made available by courtesy of Italian Radio
Dozens of composers have written operas on the Orpheus myth. Two of them, Monteverdi and Gluck, managed to change operatic history in the process. In 1776, the Venetian Bertoni had to provide an opera for a company which included the famous castrato Guadagni, Gluck's original Orfeo. In homage to Gluck, Bertoni decided to re-set the same libretto that the master had used in 1762. The result was a short opera whose music clothed Calzabigi's sparing text with the honeyed Italian elegance that Haydn and Mozart loved so well. Haydn, in fact, performed Bertoni's version at Esterhaz in preference to
Gluck's.