Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice: Don't Look Back in Ardor

Aria Code

WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Aria, Music, Arts, Metropolitan, Performing Arts, Code, Wqxr, Opera, Wnyc, Studios

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2019

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When someone you love dies, how far would you be willing to go to bring them back? Orpheus, the ancient Greek musician, goes to hell and back to have a love of his life, Eurydice, by his side again. The gods cut a deal with Orpheus: he can bring his love back from hell, but all throughout the journey, she has to follow behind him and he is not allowed to look back at her. Unable to resist, he turns to see her, and the gods take her for a second time. In a moment of overwhelming grief, Orpheus asks, “What will I do without Eurydice.”

In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and her guests reflect on Christoph Gluck's operatic adaptation of the Orpheus myth and how grief can be all-encompassing, but so can love. At the end of the show, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sings “Che farò senza Euridice” from the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Guests

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton grew up in a musical family, with days full of bluegrass, classic rock, and music history quizzes about the Beatles. In her role debut as Orfeo, she searches for this hero’s vulnerability, dramatically and vocally, and figures out how to embody a version of this character that’s modeled on Johnny Cash.

Author Ann Patchett stumbled upon her love for opera while writing her book Bel Canto. But the Orpheus myth has been part of her life -- and has influenced her writing -- for quite a lot longer. She’s fairly certain that she would travel to the depths of hell to save her husband of 25 years.

Jim Walter lost his wife to cancer in 2015. He cared for her through some very difficult years, and kept hope alive even when things looked hopeless. He says that nowadays, his grief usually isn’t as immediate and gut-punching as it once was, but he is still sometimes overcome with sadness at unexpected moments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm calling to her, I'm begging that they give me my love back and I realize that that's not going to happen.
0:11.0	From WQXR in the Metropolitan Opera, this is Arieco. I'm Rianne Giddens.
0:17.0	We're not going to be able to go down to hell to rescue the ones that we love.
0:21.0	And yet through those stories writ large, I think that in our small human ways we're able to deal with what we're doing.
0:29.0	We're going to be able to deal with what life hands us.
0:32.0	Every episode we break down a single area so we can hear it in a whole new way.
0:37.0	Today it's Kefaró, Sinsa Ioridice.
0:40.0	What will I do without your riddacy? From Glux or Féo Ioridice.
0:45.0	I think in the back of my mind I kept waiting for her to get better.
0:49.0	I kept thinking that the next tweak was going to do the trick and then we get back to the business of living our lives.
1:00.0	Christophe Glux opera Orféo at Yodadee Che is based on the ancient Greek myth about a man named Orfius who travels down to the underworld to bring his wife Euridice back from the dead.
1:12.0	There's this condition though. There's this pesky condition.
1:16.0	While they're on their journey back up to the land of the living, he's not allowed to turn back to look at Euridice.
1:23.0	He has to walk a few steps in front of her and trust that she's still there.
1:27.0	That's hard for a man who loves his wife so much he'd follow her all the way down to hell.
1:33.0	Well, he can't resist. And the moment he turns toward her she dies again. And this time there's no coming back.
1:41.0	It's a story that's been told in a million ways in books, movies, plays, paintings, even video games.
1:49.0	And there are a lot of different versions as you might expect when stories get passed down.
1:55.0	In Glux version Orfius' response to losing his wife for a second time is to sing this aria.
2:00.0	Kei Faro, Sinsa Euridice. What will I do without Euridice? It's such a simple and beautiful expression of his grief.
2:09.0	Now I want to take a closer look at that grief and this music. And there are three people here to help me do it.
2:17.0	First, Metza soprano Jamie Barton, who sings the role of Orfio. And yes, she's a woman singing a man's part,
	...

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