Iphigénie en Tauride (, Iphigenia in Tauris) is a 1779 opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard.
With Iphigénie, Gluck took his operatic reform to its logical conclusion. The recitatives are shorter and they are récitatif accompagné (i.e. the strings and perhaps other instruments are playing, not just continuo accompaniment). The normal dance movements that one finds in the French tragédie en musique are almost entirely absent. The drama is ultimately based on the play Iphigenia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War.
Performance history
Iphigénie en Tauride was first performed on 18 May 1779 by the Paris Opéra at the second Salle du Palais-Royal and was a great success. Some think that the head of the Paris Opéra, Devismes, had attempted to stoke up the rivalry between Gluck and Niccolò Piccinni, an Italian composer also resident in the French capital, by asking them both to set an opera on the subject of Iphigenia in Tauris. In the event, Piccinni's Iphigénie en Tauride was not premiered until January 1781 and did not enjoy the popularity that Gluck's work did.Holden, p. 779
In 1781 Gluck produced a German version of the opera, Iphigenia in Tauris, for the visit of the Russian Grand Duke Paul to Vienna, with the libretto translated and adapted by Johann Baptist von Alxinger in collaboration with the composer. Among the major changes was the transposition of the role of Oreste from baritone to tenor and the replacement of the final chorus of Act 2 with an instrumental movement.Krause, p. 14Rushton, booklet notes, p. 14 The revised version was the only opera Gluck wrote in German,Holden, p. 371 and his last work for the stage. Styled "a tragic Singspiel", it was staged on 23 October 1781 at the Nationalhoftheater,Krause, p. 14, Rushton, p. 14, Holden, p. 371 as the emperor Joseph II had had the Burgtheater renamed after dismissing the Italian singers and their orchestra in 1776 and installing German actors in the theatre. When the meagre results achieved by the new Singspiel programmes"despite the phenomenal success of [Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782)] and national sentiment against foreign spectacles" (Brown, cf. below) led the emperor to back down, getting an Italian opera buffa company recruited again and engaging Lorenzo Da Ponte as his theatre poet,Bruce Alan Brown, Vienna, in Sadie, Vol. Four, p. 993 the latter was charged to prepare an Italian translation of Gluck's opera, which was staged in the restored Burgtheater, on 14 December 1783.Tim Carter, "Da Ponte, Lorenzo", in Sadie, Vol. One, pp. 1073 and 1075 According to Irish tenor Michael Kelly's "reminiscences" this production, too, was personally supervised by Gluck.Reminiscences of Michael Kelly, Of the King's Theatre, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane (...), London, Colburn 1826, I, p. 254, (accessible for free online at Google Books). Kelly relates he performed the role of Pylades, while Antonia Bernasconi and Valentin Adamberger took those of Iphigenia and Orestes as they had done in the German version. The part of Thoas was sung by basso buffo Stefano Mandini (Federico Pirani, Mandini, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 68, 2007; accessible online at Treccani.it). The German edition was revived in Berlin at the former Königliches Nationaltheater in the Gendarmenmarkt on 24 February 1795,Joseph Schlüters, A General History of Music, London, Bentley, 1865, p. 139 (note) [accessible for free online in books.google] while Da Ponte's translation was chosen for the London first performance at the King's Theatre on 7 April 1796.Jeremy Hayes, "Iphigénie en Tauride", in Sadie, Vol. Two, p. 819 The original French version eventually proved to be one of Gluck's most popular composition in Paris: "it was billed on 35 dates in 1779, and it went on to enjoy more than four hundred representations in 1781–93, 1797–1808, 1812–18, 1821–23, 1826–28, and 1829.Lajarte has counted exactly 408 dates in the said interval (p. 309); only Iphigénie en Aulide, among Gluck's works, scored a higher number of performances, 428, in the interval 1774 to 1824, before being dropped (Lajarte, p. 276). Both, however, were largely outclassed by Sacchini's Œdipe à Colone with its 576 representations in much the same interval, 1787 to 1830 (583 within 1844 when it was definitively dropped, too; Lajarte, p. 355) It was mounted at the Châtelet (1868),in fact, it was not the present Théâtre du Châtelet, but the Théâtre Lyrique in its venue on the Place du Châtelet, which is today known as the Théâtre de la Ville the Renaissance (1899), and the Opéra-Comique (1900). It was brought to the stage of the present opera house in Paris on 27 June 1931 with the aid of the Wagner Society of Amsterdam and with Pierre Monteux conducting the orchestra".Pitou, p. 289
In 1889 Richard Strauss made a new German arrangement of the work for the publisher Adolph Fürstner, which was later staged in Weimar at the Hoftheater on 9 June 1900, under the Goethe-inspired title of Iphigenie auf Tauris. Page: 35° Festival della Valle d'Itria: Iphigenie auf Tauris, in "Salentonline.it – il portale del Salento", Clio S.p.A. Lecce. Strauss's version was quite often performed at the beginning of the twentieth century and was also used for the work's première at the Metropolitan Opera in 1916,the original version was revived at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2010/11 season. The 26 February performance was transmitted live in movie theaters around the world as part of "The Met: Live in HD" series but is by now rarely heard. It was recorded in 1961 with Montserrat Caballé in the title role,Operadis discography (accessed 26 August 2011) conducted by Antonio de Almeida, in performance at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon. It was recently revived at the 2009 Festival della Valle d'Itria at Martina Franca.
As for the Da Ponte Italian version, there was a memorable staging at the Teatro alla Scala in 1957, with Nino Sanzogno conducting the orchestra, Luchino Visconti as the director and Maria Callas in the title role.Blanchetti.
Roles RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 18 May 1779Harewood and Peattie, (Conductor: – )Iphigénie (Iphigenia), Priestess of Dianasoprano or mezzo-sopranoRosalie LevasseurOreste (Orestes), her brotherbaritone or tenorHenri LarrivéePylade (Pylades), his friendtenorJoseph LegrosThoas, King of ScythiabassJean-Pierre (?) MoreauMoreau's alleged first name, Jean-Pierre, is reported solely by the .Diane (Diana)sopranoChâteauvieuxScythians, priestesses of Diana, Greeks
Synopsis
Act 1 Scene: The entrance hall of the temple of Diana in Tauris.
There is no overture; the opera begins with a short passage evoking calm before turning into a depiction of a great storm at sea. Iphigenia, sister of Orestes, is the high priestess of Diana in the temple of Tauris, having been transported there magically by the goddess when her father Agamemnon attempted to offer her as a sacrifice. Iphigenia and her priestesses beg the gods to protect them from the storm (Grands dieux! soyez nous secourables).
Although the storm dies down, Iphigenia remains troubled by a dream she has had, in which she envisioned her mother Clytaemnestra murdering her father, then her brother Orestes killing her mother, and finally her own hand stabbing her brother. She prays to Diana to reunite her with Orestes (Ô toi qui prolongeas mes jours). Thoas, King of Tauris, enters. He too is obsessed with dark thoughts (De noirs pressentiments): the oracles, he tells her, predict doom for him if a single stranger escapes with his life. (The custom of the Scythians, who inhabit Tauris, is to ritually sacrifice any who are shipwrecked on their shores).
A chorus of Scythians comes bringing news of two young Greeks who have just been found shipwrecked, demanding their blood (Il nous fallait du sang). After Iphigenia and the priestesses depart, Thoas brings in the Greeks, who turn out to be Orestes and his friend Pylades. After asking them for what purpose they came (they have come to retrieve Diana's statue and return it to Greece, though they do not divulge this), Thoas promises them death and has them taken away.
Act 2 Scene: An inner chamber of the temple
Orestes and Pylades languish in chains. Orestes berates himself for causing the death of his dear friend (Dieux qui me poursuivez), but Pylades assures him that he does not feel dispirited because they will die united (Unis dès la plus tendre enfance). A minister of the sanctuary comes to remove Pylades. Orestes half falls asleep (Le calme rentre dans mon coeur), but he is tormented by visions of the Furies, who wish to avenge his slaying of his mother (whom Orestes killed for murdering his father Agamemnon).
Iphigenia enters and, although the two do not recognize each other, Orestes sees an astonishing likeness between her and the slain Clytaemnestra seen in his dream. She questions him further, asking him the fate of Agamemnon and all Greece, and he tells her of Agamemnon's murder by his wife, and the wife's murder by her son. In agitation, she asks of the fate of the son, and Orestes says that the son found the death he had long sought, and that only their sister Electra remains alive. Iphigenia sends Orestes away and with her priestesses laments the destruction of her country and the supposed death of her brother (Ô malheureuse Iphigénie). She and the priestesses perform a funeral ceremony for Orestes (Contemplez ces tristes apprêts).
Act 3 Scene: Iphigenia's chamber
Iphigenia is drawn to the stranger who reminds her of her brother Orestes (D'une image, hélas! trop chérie). She tells Orestes and Pylades she can persuade Thoas to save one of them from the sacrifice (Je pourrais du tyran tromper la barbarie) and asks the one who is spared to carry word of her fate to her sister Electra in Argos. Both men readily agree, and Iphigenia chooses Orestes to survive.
But on her exit, Orestes insists that Pylades agree to switch places with him as Orestes cannot bear the thought of his friend's death and sees dying as an escape from his own madness; Pylades, on the contrary, is glad at the thought of dying so Orestes can live (Duet: Et tu prétends encore que tu m'aimes and aria for Pylades: Ah! mon ami, j'implore ta pitié!). When Iphigenia returns, Orestes insists that she reverse her decision, threatening to kill himself before her eyes if she does not. Reluctantly, she agrees to spare Pylades instead and sends him to carry her message to Electra. Everyone but Pylades departs, and he closes the act by promising to do everything possible to save Orestes (Divinité des grandes âmes!).
Act 4 Scene: Inside the temple of Diana
Iphigenia wonders how she can ever carry out the killing of Orestes, since somehow her soul shrinks from the thought of it. She asks the goddess Diana to help her steel herself for the task (Je t'implore et je tremble). The priestesses bring in Orestes, who has been prepared for sacrifice (Chorus: Ô Diane, sois nous propice). He tells her not to lament him, but to strike, telling her it is the will of the gods. The priestesses sing a hymn to Diana as they lead Orestes to the altar (Chorus: Chaste fille de Latone). While she wields the knife, Orestes exclaims Iphigenia's name, leading her and the priestesses to recognize him and stop the ritual slaughter.
The happy reunion of sister and brother is cut short at news that Thoas is coming, having heard that one of the captives was released and intent on the blood of the other. The king enters wildly, ordering his guards to seize Orestes and promising to sacrifice both him and his sister. At that moment Pylades enters with a band of Greeks, cutting down Thoas where he stands.