Gluck’s “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from his opera Orfeo ed Euridice is one of the most enchanting melodies ever written. It depicts the sorrowful song of Orpheus, a legendary musician in Greek mythology who journeyed to the underworld to plead for the release of his deceased wife Euridice. Orpheus’ playing of the lyre was so inspired that the spirits of the underworld were moved to tears, and they granted his request to return Euridice to him, on the condition that he did not look back at her until they had reached the land of the living. Sadly, Orpheus was unable to resist his beautiful wife’s pleas to look at her, and she fell back into the darkness of death, leaving Orpheus devastated and alone.
Orfeo ed Euridice was the first of Christoph Gluck’s reform operas and his most famous contribution to the genre. In a time of ornate Italian operas, driven by the display of vocal virtuosity, with complicated libretti, Orfeo ed Euridice was not only a stark contrast to all of this, but inevitably shaped the direction of opera for generations of composers to come. Inspired by Francesco Algarotti’s Essay on Opera, written in 1755, Gluck set out to create a work in which drama, not the singers, was first and foremost, and the plot was simple and straightforward. A great recipe for storytelling which is one of the reasons I chose it. Too often as players we perform something with no context around, this is a perfect example for players to work on telling a story and getting into the moment with their performance.

One of the most popular numbers from Orfeo ed Euridice , “Dance of the Blessed Spirits,” is an orchestral number at the beginning of Scene II in Act II. Orfeo has found his way past the Furies that guard the gate to Hades by pacifying them with his lyre and singing. He is now in Elysium searching for his departed wife Euridice. Featuring a solo flute, accompanied by strings, Dance of the Blessed Spirits is a piece of a simple ternary design. The outer sections, in F major, depict a calm pastoral mood and the beautiful landscape of the Elysian Fields, where the souls of the heroic and those chosen by the gods rest in happiness in the afterlife. The B section shifts into the relative minor with a more passionate melody, yearning and lonely, suggesting Orfeo’s desperate search to find his beloved and restore her to his world. Clearly distinguishing between the key colours is central to the success of the overall interpretation.
I always look for inspiration on other instruments, this performance captures it all.