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Met & Juilliard Show Gluck “Iphigénie en Aulide,” Worthy of Full-Fledged, Staged Revival
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert      |   follow us...

   
photo by Marty Sohl
(left to right) Takaoshi Onishi, Andrew Stenson, Ying Fang, Virginie Verrez, Brandon Cedel, Yunpeng Wang, Juilliard415 & chorus
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Composer Christoph Willibald Gluck and librettist Marie François Louis Gand LeBlanc du Roullet’s classical tragedy of moral dilemma “Iphigénie en Aulide” (1774), after Jean Racine’s play, is replete with fiery vows of vengeance; affecting laments and dignified statements of nobility of spirit; scenes of estrangement, angry and tearful, and reconciliation, relieved and jubilant; cursing of the gods and appeals to them for support or mercy; and a radiant dea ex machina and blissful, if obligatory, happy ending, with all tears banished and conflict resolved.  These elements, set to Gluck’s nonpareil music, by turns turbulent or stately, as experienced in the joint Juilliard School and Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program’s semi-staged concert presentation at Juilliard, made a case for a full-fledged, staged revival, such as Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” (1779) has been treated to.  I attended the February 10 first of three performances.
Jane Glover expertly guided the soloists and vocal ensemble, as well as Juilliard415, the school’s period-instrument orchestra, which had a moment to shine immediately, in the tempestuous overture.  Ying Fang, singing Iphigénie in a pure soprano, offered moving plaints, persuasive expressions of tender love and betrayal, and firm assertions of duty, respect, and self sacrifice, aware that the gods demanded her death and resolute that she would honor the vow that her father made to them.  Displaying a lyric tenor with spinto underpinnings, Andrew Stenson gave us Achille the lover and the warrior, defending his reputation and his beloved Iphigénie with fervor, ready to rescue her even if it means defying her father, King Agamemnon.  Vibrant mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez portrayed Clytemnestre as a noble, sympathetic figure—a far cry from the Queen in her decline depicted by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal in their Freud-flavored “Elektra” —by turns pleading here for her daughter’s life and irately invoking the gods, calling upon them to side with her.  Baritone Yunpeng Wang, made a dramatically expressive Agamemnon, perhaps the opera’s most conflicted character, caught in the trap laid for him by the gods, who answered his prayer for winds to propel his ships toward Troy, to avenge the abduction of Helen, but demanded a wrenching sacrifice, that of his daughter, in exchange.  He looked in vain for loopholes—that he would not have to sacrifice Iphigénie if she did not come to Aulide—but she did—or that he may not have had to have her slain at the altar if she left quickly—which she did not.  He had a heated exchange with Achille, whom he slandered, falsely accusing him of unfaithfulness to Iphigénie, and who wanted to do the very thing—save Iphigénie—that was in her own father’s heart.
The rest of the dramatis personae were rich-voiced bass-baritone Brandon Cedel as Calchas, the priest, deploring his odious sacred obligation to take up the knife and kill the princess, and happily informing everyone of the goddess Diane’s clemency; bass Sava Vemić as Arcas, Agamemnon’s captain of the guard; bright-voiced soprano Liv Redpath as a commanding Diane; baritone Takaoki Onishi as Patrocle, Achille’s “compagnon de [sa] gloire; … après [Iphigénie] le plus cher à [ses] yeux,” relegated here to defending the warrior’s beleaguered bride-to-be; and Angela Vallone, Kara Sainz, and Mary-Elizabeth O’Neill as solo women of Aulide, Iphigénie’s companions.  The striking ensemble by turns praised the princess or called for her death, in obeisance to Agamemnon’s vow.  Director David Paul ensured that the drama flowed convincingly and Paul Hudson designed the lighting.
“Iphigénie en Aulide” was slated for repetitions on February 12 at 8 p.m. and 14 at 2 p.m.  Juilliard is located at 155 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, and may be contacted at www.events.juilliard.edu.

 

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