Iphigénie en Tauride

Tragédie opéra in four acts

German Translation by P. Schmidt
Vocal Score based on the Urtext of the Gluck Complete Edition by J. Sommer
BA 2287a



Preface              Background to the Plot              Notes on Performance


PREFACE

In November 1778 Gluck and his wife left Vienna on his fifth journey to Paris with the intention of staying there for several years. In his luggage were two virtually complete stage works: Iphigénie en Tauride and Echo et Narcisse. The 64-year-old composer was obviously capable of conceiving and executing two such contrasting large-scale works simultaneously, having finished the bulk of both pieces in the previous spring and summer. As he wrote at the end of June 1778 to his friend, ambassadorial secretary Kruthoffer in Paris, his "brain was completely overheated" from the "two operas stuck inside it, Iphigénie and Narcisse."

In the case of Iphigénie Gluck had taken a particularly strong hand in the shaping of the libretto (one is reminded of Mozart and Stephanie the Younger's Abduction from the Seraglio three years later). He had sent suggestions and demands to his librettist, the young Nicolas-François Guillard (1752-1814), that affected not only the details of the tragedy but also its large-scale design. The libretto was based on an earlier five-act French play by Guymond de la Touche, and Gluck's demands involved a key passage that the composer, with a keen eye, had recognized as a critical juncture in the drama. De la Touche's original second act ended with the scene of the Eumenides appearing to Orestes in a dream to torment and ultimately to threaten the "matricide," while his Act 3 opens with appearance of Iphigenia and her priestesses before Orestes, who at first imagines that he is seeing his mother. Gluck's challenge was to combine Orestes' cry to his sister, "Ma mère! Ciel!", with the nightmarish scene of the Eumenides. Waking up in terror from the fierce pangs of his conscience and the threats of the avenging spirits, Orestes now believes that Iphigenia, standing before him, is his murdered mother. Dream and reality merge in this portentous moment of "recognition." What a powerful effect Gluck was able to achieve by uniting two scenes originally separated by the end of an act and merging the chorus of Eumenides with the appearance of Iphigenia! It did not bother him in the least that the work now had only four slightly disproportionate acts instead of the "classical" five.

Background to the Plot

Iphigenia, an "offspring from the lineage of Tantalus," is the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, and the sister of Orestes and Electra. Betrothed to Achilles, she was rescued by the goddess Diana (Artemis) from a fiery death in Aulis (see Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide) by being enshrouded in smoke from the fire. She was thereupon brought to the island of Tauris, where she and her priestesses now guard the goddess's image in the sacred temple, surrounded by the wild hordes of Scythians who inhabit the island beneath the rule of their king, Thoas.

The première, given on 18 May 1779, was hugely successful and was rapidly followed by an uninterrupted series of repeat performances (the number had already reached 42 by the end of the season). It was the greatest triumph of Gluck's career. However, the opera was not without its critics. Some thought Gluck's tragédie too short. Worse yet, at least among the traditionalists in the Parisian audience, was the absence of a final ballet, a divertissement. To remedy this situation, a ballet-divertissement entitled Les Scythes enchainés ("The Enchained Scythians") by François-Joseph Gossec was appended to the work. Although this was at odds with Gluck's belief that his stage works "should end with the words," i.e., with a vocal ensemble or chorus, he refused to take umbrage and viewed the divertissement as nothing more than an hors-d'oeuvre.

Notes on Performance

The casting of the large solo parts poses no small challenge. The title role obviously calls for a "singer-actress," a dramatic soprano with both declamatory and cantabile vocal qualities and an imposing stage presence. On the other hand, the work places unusual demands on the male voices, especially those of the two friends. This applies in particular to the part of Orestes, whose extremely high register is indicated by the use of the alto clef. Under Gluck's direction, this part was sung in Paris by a very high baritone (Larrivée), whereas in Vienna in 1781 it was taken by a tenor (Adamberger, Mozart's Belmonte!). The part of Thoas in the Vienna production was perhaps ideally cast with Karl Ludwig Fischer (Mozart's first Osmin!). For the performance of the choral numbers or scenes, especially scenes 3 to 5 in Act 1, Noverre's brilliant idea of having the singing chorus hidden in the wings while the corps de ballet acts out the parts on stage has proved to be highly effective.

The strains of the rehearsals and first performances of Iphigénie en Tauride and the subsequent rehearsals of Echo et Narcisse, the vehement arguments on the casting, the altercations with his critics, and most of all the failure of Echo et Narcisse at its première on 24 September 1779: all these factors caused Gluck to leave Paris in early October. The composer, who had suffered his first stroke at the end of July, was urgently asked to come back by Queen Marie Antoinette, but he declared his unwillingness ever to return. In the end, he had his way. His Parisian music dramas, especially the two Iphigénies, remained in the repertoire of the Académie Royale de Musique to great and lasting acclaim. By the time of Gluck's death in Vienna on 15 November 1787, Iphigénie en Tauride had witnessed its ninetieth performance in Paris.
Gerhard Croll
(translated by J. Bradford Robinson)