Alceste

Christoph Willibald Gluck's second “reform” opera—considered revolutionary for moving away from vocal pyrotechnics to an expressive fusion of music and drama—is an adaptation of Euripides' play about the titular queen who sacrifices herself to save her husband from death, only to be rescued by Hercules, who storms the underworld on her behalf. Under Ivor Bolton's baton, this 2014 production from Madrid's Teatro Real (which uses the composer's 1774 French revision of the 1767 Italian original) conveys the score's austere beauty, although Krzysztof Warlikowski's staging will not appeal to traditionalists. Not only does he employ modern dress (a fairly common practice nowadays), he also re-imagines Alceste as Princess Diana, trapped in an unhappy marriage that she hopes to escape through her decision to die, but then returns to life as an incapacitated woman in a wheelchair. An intriguing concept that recalls the story's tragic roots, this reworking requires some radical directorial choices, including the depiction of hell as a morgue and the insertion of two dialogue scenes that interrupt the music. Vocally, too, the production is flawed. In the title role, soprano Angela Denoke doesn't display the agility demanded by the part, and the voices of both Paul Groves (as Admète, her husband) and Willard White (doing double duty as Thanatos and the High Priest) sound somewhat frayed. In sum, this version of Gluck's rarely performed opera doesn't mark an appreciable improvement on the similarly problematic Stuttgart staging (VL-9/07). Presented in PCM stereo, this is a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)