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| 'Iphigénie en Tauride' is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. The French libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard. It was first performed in Paris on May 18, 1779.
Two years later, in 1781, as his last work for the stage, Gluck produced a German version of the opera, Iphigenia auf 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. However, this somewhat altered version has generally been seen as inferior to the 1779 Paris version, which has been the version usually performed and recorded. With Iphigénie, Gluck took his operatic reform to its logical conclusion. There are no longer any recitatives, only dramatic scenes interspersed with arioso-like structures. The drama is based on the play Iphigeneia in Tauris by the ancient Greek dramatist Euripides which deals with Greek mythological stories concerning the family of Agamemnon in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The borrowings Gluck made in this, his last significant opera, are numerous, and many scholars feel that they constitute a "summing up" of the artistic ideals he pursued throughout his career as a composer. Most of the reused music is his own, culled from his earlier, Italian-language operas or from his ballet Don Juan (1761). The Act II music for the Furies, for example, adapts music from Gluck's ballet. In at least one case, however, an aria in Iphigénie en Tauride is actually Gluck borrowing from himself borrowing from Johann Sebastian Bach; the Act IV number for Iphigenia, "Je t'implore et je tremble," is a parody of "Perchè, se tanti siete" from Gluck's Antigono, which in turn uses material from the Gigue of the Partita no. 1 in B Flat (BWV 825) by Bach. Iphigénie en Tauride is part of the standard operatic repertoire./ Source |
| Iphigénie en Tauride |
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| Roles Iphigénie (Iphigeneia), Priestess of Diana soprano or mezzo-soprano Oreste (Orestes), her brother baritone or tenor Pylade (Pylades), his friend tenor Thoas, King of Scythia bass Diane (Diana) soprano Scythians, priestesses of Diana, Greeks |
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