Comments on: Preview of Orfeo ed Euridice

By: M Milbach

M Milbach — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:37:44 +0000

I actually enjoyed the set! As a theatre professional I found the use of the screens with performers and crew visible to be as contemporary as the Mizrahi costumes. Especially wonderful was the fiberoptic underworld which seemed to be in constant motion. Thanks. I’ll be having my students check out more opera thanks to this programming.

By: Yvonne Chamberlyn

Yvonne Chamberlyn — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:47:30 +0000

I heard this opera on a live radio broadcast, and I was delighted to see it on TV. This opera is great, and compliments Blythe’s voice. I don’t think the sets were the best ever (the scene with when Euridice dies for the second time had a very dark set and it hurt my eyes a bit) But I loved the singers (Di Neise practically was Euridice) and the dancing! It was great.

By: E Lampke

E Lampke — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:08:16 +0000

While I only caught the last 20 or so minutes on TV, I was captivated by the quality of the singers. Yes, the set was at times dark, but the production showed a great deal of life in the choreography and costumes. Would love to see it again.

By: Merle

Merle — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:02:19 +0000

I found this Orfeo ed Euridice compelling and beautiful. The singing was magnificent, the acting convincing, the production values in general original. The sets, costumes, choreography, staging enhanced the drama and intensity of the opera. Mark Morris did an amazing job of creating a 21st century Orfeo ed Euridice that should shine through the ages. Stephanie Blythe was stunning in her depth of feeling. She embodied the yearning and conflict of Orfeo. Danielle de Niese was a passionate, beautiful Euridice, young and vital, absolutely convincing in her demands for attention from her husband. Heidi Grant Murphy brought out the trickster quality of Amor, the god of love, with vivacity and flair. Her costume caused me to giggle conspiratorily. Love is dangerously funny. I first heard an aria from this opera when I attended P.S. 208 in Brooklyn and my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Sayers, taught it to our class. We sang in unison Orfeo’s lament of his loss of his beautiful Euridice. 58 years later, I understand even more deeply what had moved me when I was nine years old, thanks to this glorious production.

By: Mike T.

Mike T. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:15:27 +0000

To each his own, but we were very happy with this production. Mark Morris really knows how to make Gluck’s work come alive onstage, with dance perfectly filling up and complementing the orchestral passages. Stephanie Blythe was just devastatingly good in our opinion. Kudos also to Ms. DeNeise and Ms. Murphy.
I agree to some extent about the dull three-tiered set, but musically, dramatically and as an example of how to utilize the strengths of music, drama, and dance to make for compelling stage performance, we don’t think you could ask for more. Good going, gang!

By: Harriet Fishlow

Harriet Fishlow — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:55:49 +0000

I loved the music. Blythe is wonderful. But the set was so dark, I gave up watching and just listened.

By: Bill Zahn, Long Beach CA

Bill Zahn, Long Beach CA — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:42:24 +0000

What did the stepfather of Richard Huemer’s wife think of the filmed Orpheo ed Eurudice? Everyone does not have to rave about every production, even from the Met. I gave up on La Rondine that preceded O&E on PBS. When I switched back over over, the first tones out of the the pipes of Stephanie Blythe had me wide awake to the very end.
I started piano eighty years ago and was saturated thru composition and double-dounterpoint canon and fugue with Arnold Schönberg at UCLA in 1942. The G. I. Bill permitted me to escape into medicine; they make a great pairing.
I have gone decades taping every Met broadcast; have most of the piano-vocal scores in print, and would often play the piano part, sing with the baritones and do the treble parts on the flute. See what I mean by ’saturation’.
I was raised on Marilyn Horne, but Stephanie Blythe has the best trouser-role voice I’ve ever heard. And I enjoyed the choreography; you could concentrate on various individual dancers while Gluck did his copious repititions. It really gave a nudge to my flagging musical interest–thanks for an exceptional production.

By: Richard Huemer

Richard Huemer — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:45:50 +0000

My spouse and I caught this thing again on PBS on June 28. The first time we saw it was in the movie theatre, but my wife soon walked out, along with the friend whom we were trying to introduce to opera. (My wife’s stepfather sang for the Met, so she knows opera and knows what she likes.) I found the sets ugly, the lighting dim, and the costumes commonplace and drab. This minimalist production was aggressively mundane and unattractive to the point of drawing one’s attention away from the singing. The singing (as always at the Met) was first-rate–but the acting wasn’t. Somehow, Stephanie Blythe just wasn’t a convincing Orpheus. I never believed that she was possessed by a passion for Euridice so strong as to lead her beyond the gates of Hell, although heck might have worked. (All of the other HD productions from the Met this year were superlative, and we hope they’ll all be on PBS!)

By: aztec69

aztec69 — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:48:43 +0000

I’ve been an opera buff for over 50 years and in all that time I could never sit through a performance or recording of Orfeo & Euridice. Yes, I knew it was important. Yes, I knew it had that one lovely tune that went on and on and on.
But it just bored me. This broadcast convinced me that it was worth watching and listening to. Thanx GP. Now, can you do the same for The Ring?

By: Harlow Robinson

Harlow Robinson — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:12:23 +0000

Simply beautiful! I was captivated from beginning to end, despite the interruptions. I TiVOd it and am having friends over to see it this weekend. Bravo Mark Morris! Thank you for bringing this glorious opera to new heights! Thank you James Levine! Thank you for your selection of singers!