IphigÃ©nie en Aulide

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IphigÃ©nie en Aulide

Iphigénie en Aulide (Iphigeneia
Iphigeneia

Iphigenia is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. In Attic accounts, Iphigenia is sometimes called a daughter of Theseus and Helen raised by Agamemnon and Clytemnestra....
in Aulis
Aulis

Aulis is:*In Greek mythology, Aulis was both**A daughter of King Ogyges and Thebe , and**Modern day Avlida, a port in Boeotia where the Greek navy rallied before setting off against Troy...
) is an opera by Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by Leblanc du Roullet and was based on Jean Racine

Jean Racine

Jean Racine was a France dramatist, one of the "big three" of 17th century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition....
's tragedy Iphigénie
Iphigénie

Iphig?nie is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine by the French playwright Jean Racine. It was first performed in the Orangerie in Versailles on August 18th 1674 as part of the fifth of the royal Divertissements de Versailles of Louis XIV to celebrate the conquest of Franche-Comt?....
. It was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 19 April 1774.

In 1847 Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
presented a revised version of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide at the Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Germany Federal Free state of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon triangle metropolitan area....
Court. Wagner edited, re-scored and revised the opera significantly including adding a different ending and some other passages of his own composition.

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Encyclopedia

Jean Racine

Richard Wagner

Dresden

Alessandra Marc

Alessandra Marc , is an award-winning United States dramatic soprano who has appeared at many of the world's finest opera houses and orchestras....
as Iphigenia.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 19 April, 1774 (Conductor: - )
Agamemnon Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon / is the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; different mythological versions make him the king either of Mycenae or of Argos.... , King of Mycenae Mycenae Mycenae , is an archaeology in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 6 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north....	bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying Bass that shares certain qualities with the baritone voice type.The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Richard Wagner roles: the Dutchman in The Flying Dutchman , Wotan/Der Wanderer in the Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von N?rnbe...	Henri Larrivée
Clitemnestre (Clytemnestra Clytemnestra Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greece kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon—said by Euripides to be her second husband—and his concubine Cassandra.... ), his wife	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....	du Plant
Iphigénie (Iphigenia, their daughter	soprano	Sophie Arnould Sophie Arnould Sophie Arnould was a French operatic soprano.Born Magdeleine Sophie Arnould, she studied in Paris with Marie Fel and La Clairon, and made her stage debut at the Op?ra de Paris on December 15, 1757, and sang there for 20 years....
Achille (Achilles Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles.... ), a Greek Ancient Greece The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth .... hero	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....	Joseph Legros Joseph Legros Joseph Legros was a French singer and composer of the 18th century. He is best remembered for his association with the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck....
Patrocle (Patroclus Patroclus In Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , son of Menoetius , was Achilles? beloved comrade and, according to some , his lover.... )	bass
Calchas Calchas In Greek mythology, Calchas , son of Thestor, was a Argive seer, with a gift for interpreting the flight of birds that he received of Apollo: "as an augur, Calchas had no rival in the camp".... , the High Priest	bass
Arcas Arcas In Greek_mythology, Arcas is the son of Zeus and Callisto . Callisto was a nymph of the goddess Artemis. Zeus, being a flirtatious god, wanted Callisto for a lover....	bass
Diane (Diana Diana (mythology) In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunting, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and also of the moon. In literature she was the Greek deities and their Roman and Etruscan counterparts of the Greek mythology Artemis, though in Cult she was Italy, not Greek, in origin.... )	soprano
Priests, people

Synopsis

Calchas, the great seer, prophesies that king Agamemnon must sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigénie, in order to guarantee fair winds for the king's fleet en route to Troy –- a demand that arrives from the goddess Diana herself. Throughout the opera, Agamemnon struggles with the terrible choice between sparing his daughter's life and ensuring his subjects' welfare.

Agamemnon summons his daughter to Aulis, the port where the Greek navy is gathering, ostensibly for her to wed Achilles, the great warrior hero. Then, doubting his decision, the king sends Arcas, his captain of the guards, to send her back home with the fabricated explanation that Achilles has been unfaithful.

However, Arcas also has second thoughts, and he ultimately reveals the plot to Achilles. Achilles rushes to save Iphigénie from sacrifice; however, the Greek people have taken Calchas' prophecy to heart, and they demand the ceremony go forward.

At this point, Iphigénie resigns to her fate, and offers her own life for the sake of her people. Just in time, however, Calchas announces that Diana has changed her mind about the sacrifice. The opera concludes with Gluck's most significant revision of the original myth, when Diana appears personally to consecrate both the wedding and Agamemnon's voyage.

Selected recordings

José van Dam
José van Dam

Joseph, Baron van Damme , known under the pseudonym Jos? van Dam, is a Belgium bass-baritone.Jos? van Dam was born in Brussels on August 25, 1940....
(Agamemnon), Anne Sofie von Otter (Clytemnestre), Lynne Dawson
Lynne Dawson

Lynne Dawson is an England soprano. She came to great prominence through her performance as a soloist in ?Libera Me? from Verdi?s Requiem with the BBC Singers at Princess Diana?s funeral in September 1997....
(Iphigénie), John Aler (Achille); Monteverdi Choir, Lyon Opera Orchestra, John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner

Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE Fellowship of King's College London is an England conducting. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre R?volutionnaire et Romantique ....
(Erato, 1990). This recording, sung in French, presents the score as Gluck wrote it.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a German singer and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder singers of his generation....
(Agamemnon), Trudeliese Schmidt (Clytemnestre), Anna Moffo
Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singing and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation. She possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agility, and was an affecting singing-actress of great physical beauty....
(Iphiginie), Ludovic Spiess (Achille); Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Muncher Rundfunkorchester, Kurt Eichhorn
Kurt Eichhorn

Kurt Peter Eichhorn was a Germany conducting, the son of a painter. He studied music at the conservatory in W?rzburg with Hermann Zilcher. His conducting debut was in 1932 as a conductor and choral conductor in Bielefeld....
(Eurodisc/BMG 1972). Sung in German, this recording presents the score as revised by Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
.

External links

(French)