• ORFEO Timothy Kenworthy-Brown
• EURIDICE Claire Tomlin
• AMOR Philippa Hyde
• Psalmody
• Essex Baroque Orchestra
• directed by Peter Holman
• staging by Jack Edwards

Gluck’s Orfeo is one of the earliest operas that has remained in the repertory from the time of its first production, in Vienna in 1762, to the present.  It is a fascinating mixture of old and new.  Its noble simplicity was revolutionary at the time, and influenced composers such as Mozart, Berlioz and Wagner, and yet the work harks back in its theme to the earliest Baroque operas, and its rich orchestration includes a number of obsolete instruments, such as the recorder, the chalumeau and a consort of cornett and three trombones.  This performance is semi-staged, and is sung in Anne Ridler’s fine English translation.