Tea at Trianon: Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice

Christoph Willibald Gluck was Marie-Antoinette's music teacher and her favorite composer, whom she introduced to France after she became queen in 1774. Among his most famous operas is Orpheus and Eurydice, which originally debuted in Vienna in 1762. It is a fitting opera to listen to during the month of the Holy Souls, when so many prayers are offered for the dead, since it is based upon the myth of Orpheus, who tried to release his beloved wife from the underworld. Unlike the myth, the opera of Gluck has a happy ending. One of the loveliest pieces from Orpheus and Eurydice is the "Dance of the Blessed Spirits." It is interesting that the queen so loved this opera; to listen to it is to have a glimpse into her soul. Share

2 comments:

Michelle Therese said...: One problem about coming to your blog is that I get all these ideas of things I should read and watch - but I'm already up to my eyes in things I'm reading and watching!!!; November 4, 2007 at 4:08:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Thanks, I'm honored! I am up to my eyes with stuff, too.; November 4, 2007 at 4:23:00 PM EST