5: The Last Operas and Retirement
Gluck had hoped to find fulfilment in Paris and at first the Paris audiences and critics adored his work. He followed up his first great success with another opera based on a Greek myth - Iphigenie en Tauride. It turned out to be his last grand opera written in the reforming, naturalistic style which he had pioneered. Donald Macleod introduces excerpts from this work and from Gluck's last opera, the conservative pastoral, Echo et Narcisse. Afterthese final efforts Gluck abandoned the lyric stage in Paris for retirement in Vienna.