Baroque académie (2011)

Opting for the French-language version of Gluck's Orpheus, David Alagna was faced with the task of achieving an appropriately subtle adaptation. In a plot transposed to the present day, Eurydice dies in a car accident on the day of her wedding, and Orpheus's quest for his beloved is a dream beginning and ending at the cemetery. No happy ending in this interpretation, but a new approach to characterisation: Amore, sung by a baritone, becomes a funeral parlour employee and Orpheus's guide. And Orpheus, of course, loses his loved one forever by turning to look back. The enormously talented Roberto Alagna throws himself body and soul into this production. His incredible vitality and flawless timbre and diction make him a great Orpheus.