Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo, by Michael Miller
Metropolitan Opera House
February 26, 2011 Matinee, HD Transmission/Simulcast
Iphigénie en Tauride
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Libretto - Nicolas-François Guillard
Iphigénie - Susan Graham
Oreste - Plácido Domingo
Pylade - Paul Groves
Conductor - Patrick Summers
Production - Stephen Wadsworth
Set Designer - Thomas Lynch
Costume designer - Martin Pakledinaz
Lighting Designer - Neil Peter Jampolis
Choreographer - Daniel Pelzig
Iphigénie en Tauride is a co-production with Seattle Opera.
What a splendid idea to revive Gluck's final masterpiece, Iphigénie en Tauride, on two great stages at opposite ends of the continent. Gluck, the great reformer, has been too long little more than a chapter — or, worse — a section of a chapter in music history books, and recent attempts to bring his works to life on 21st century stages are for the most part commendable, whether they succeed or not, although I did sense a touch of cynicism in the excruciatingly fashionable Orphée of Mark Morris and Isaac Mizrahi — and a fashion statement (or ad) is not what we want in these unmitigatedly dignified works.

