Nicola Lisle on Bampton Classical Opera double to mark Gluck’s 300th anniversary

It’s Christoph Willibald Gluck’s 300th birthday this year — but you could be forgiven for not realising because, unlike many composers, his anniversary has sneaked in largely unnoticed.

Now Bampton Classical Opera is attempting to redress the balance by putting on the UK-staged premiere of one of Gluck’s lesser-known pieces, the one-act opera Il Parnaso confuso (The Muses confused).

“In the last few years we’ve been rather interested in Gluck, because there’s so little that is performed,” says Jeremy Gray, who founded Bampton Opera with wife Gilly French in 1993.

“This year, other than his Orfeo in Buxton, his 300th is almost being ignored in this country. Considering he is one of the great pinnacles of 18th-century opera, I don’t know why there isn’t more interest in him. It’s beautiful music, wonderfully lyrical.”

Il Parnaso confuso was written in 1765 for a Royal wedding in Vienna and this is reflected in the storyline, which concerns a group of performers putting on an entertainment for a Royal wedding and having to call on the Muses of Tragic Poetry, Lyric Poetry and Music for inspiration.

“The Muses are meant to be ready with wonderful music and poetry, but they dry up on this occasion,” explains Jeremy. “So it’s really a debate about their creative blockage and the need for urgency.”

Perhaps surprisingly, this little-known work came after Gluck’s popular Orfeo. “He’d moved on in terms of his approach to opera, and I suppose this is a bit of a retrograde piece because it’s more conventional in structure, but I think because of the occasion it was written for, that was appropriate.”

The piece is being paired with what is believed to be the UK modern premi-ere of Orfeo by Gluck’s contemporary and rival, Ferdinando Bertoni.

“We’ve wanted to do this piece for years since we picked up a CD and loved it,” Jeremy says. “The music is just wonderful. It’s really driven and it just sweeps the story with wonderful energy and expressiveness, with marvellous choruses and a fabulous scene for Orpheus and Eurydice at the end.

“It was written a few years after Gluck’s famous version, to the same libretto, and was commissioned by Guadagni, who was the castrato who sang Orfeo for Gluck and who appar-ently felt that the Gluck didn’t show off his voice suffic-iently well, so he commissioned two other vers-ions to the same libretto. So it testifies in a way to the famous version, and it was certainly inspired by it.”

Both operas will be sung in new translations by Gilly French, and feature six young professional singers — some of them familiar to Bampton audiences, such as soprano Aoife O'Sullivan and mezzo Caryl Hughes, and some newcomers.

One singer making her Bampton debut this year is Anna Starushkevych, who won the comp-any’s inaugural Young Singers competition last year. “She’s singing the title role in Orfeo, as well as one of the smaller roles in the Gluck, and has a very creamy, beautiful mezzo,” says Gilly. “We’re very excited about that.

“We’ve got a very light first half with the Gluck, and a more serious second half with the Bertoni,” Jeremy concludes. “Musically they’ve got a great deal in common, so it should make a really interesting pairing.”

Gluck’s Il Parnaso confuso and Bertoni Orfeo
The Deanery Garden, Bampton
July 18 & 19
Tickets: Call 01993 851142 or visit www.bamptonopera.org