From now on this should be the Carmen by which others are measured. Whereas Carmen works like an avalanche, hurling its unruly force at the nonplussed listener, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice makes quite other demands on an audience. Its power lies in refinement and concentration, classical symmetry and the beauty of order. Its hero is the god of song, conquering furies not with the discord of violence but with sweet harmony. Apart from the chorus, only three singers appear on stage.
Action is sparse.
The mood, whether in the Underworld or in the Elysian Fields, remains elegiac and restrained. Even the sprightly overture and determinedly joyful resolution cannot banish the overriding spirit of melancholy. A concert performance, as given by the Royal Opera last week, only emphasises that austerity. In practice it proved as thrilling in its loftiness as Bizet's sordid tale had in its realism. With the counter-tenor David Daniels in the title role and Susan Gritton as his Euridice, musical perfection was nearly guaranteed before a note was heard.