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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing final thoughts, 30 May 2007
'Echo et Narcisse' was Gluck's last opera, written 38 years after his premiere, a lifetime's experience, and appearing four months after the resounding success of his crowning masterpiece 'Iphigenie en Tauride' in May 1779. It was, by comparison, a failure, and this caused Gluck, disappointed and weary of the trials of theatrical life, to retire from the Parisian operatic scene to his home in Vienna, where he lived a further eight years before his death in 1787. The lack of success of this final opera is usually blamed on the indifferent libretto (really it is not that bad) and the unpromising mythical story of the self-obsessed Narcissus spurning the love of the nymph Echo who pines away until only her voice is left, but it may be that audiences simply could not take such a sudden change in style and subject. Whereas the second 'Iphigenie' is a masterly tragic drama on a large scale, 'Echo et Narcisse' gives the impression of an archaic pastoral. Big issues of the painfully self-deceptive nature of love, however, are at work beneath the calm surface and these occasionally burst forth explosively, as for example at the end of Act 1 where the music takes on that supercharged driving energy characteristic of some of Gluck's most intense dramatic scenes. Such moments are brief, but one should not be misled by the apparently short-breathed nature of his inspiration here into thinking that the work itself is a slight one. It has the pared down, paradoxically simple but concentrated expressive style of such late Shakespeare plays as 'The Tempest.' By this stage Gluck did, after all, know what he was doing!
The only recording yet to appear was made live at the 1987 Schwetzingen Festival, where it was given a by all accounts bizarre production in tandem with the earlier 'Le cinesi' (a video cassette of this double bill under the title 'L'innocenza ed il piacer' is available in the USA). The recording is closely miked and there is quite a lot of loud clumping around on the stage. Musically there is only one weak link, the Echo of Sophie Boulin, whose voice as recorded often takes on an unpleasant whining quality. The other female soloists are good and the sweet-voiced Kurt Streit is outstanding as Narcisse. As his friend Cynire another tenor Peter Galliard deploys some dubious French, but is well contrasted with Streit. Rene Jacobs, now equally known for his conducting as his singing, leads the period instrument Concerto Koeln. His speeds are sometimes on the fast side ('andante' nearly always taken as 'allegro'), but he does bring out the elusive quality of the score. Because the opera at Schwetzingen was teamed with another work and presumably there was no ballet, there are extensive cuts in the divertissements of the Prologue and Act 1, several dances and dance songs being omitted. Acts 2 and 3 are given complete, though there is no final ballet.
Maybe one day there will be a worthy stage production of 'Echo et Narcisse' that will revive interest in this facinating piece. Meanwhile those who admire Gluck's operas and regard him, as I do, as one of the greatest of musical dramatists will have to have this recording. It is far more than just a stop-gap and I for one am grateful for it.
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