Blessed Spirit

The Classical Opera Company at Wigmore Hall

Although it was billed as a Royal Opera production, the success of last autumn’s Artaxerxes in the Linbury Studio was down to Ian Page and his Classical Opera Company’s forces.

With recent explorations of Handel and Haydn under their belt, for Blessed Spirit they turned their attention to the extraordinary output of Christoph Willibald Gluck.

Page was fortunate in having three excellent vocalists – mezzo Anna Stéphany and sopranos Sophie Bevan and Ailish Tynan – who, with actor Michael Maloney declaiming readings from contemporary observers from an unlit corner of the stage, had a chronological grand tour through the composer’s 45 or so, mostly unknown, operas, unearthing some real gems along the way.

Highlights are probably the best way to witness Gluck’s genius, as a whole opera can start to get indigestible. The flavours of Page’s menu were varied, from Clytemnestre’s deeply dramatic outpouring of revengeful grief from Iphigénie en Aulie, to the serenity of Alceste’s self-sacrifice, the palate-cleansing pastoralism of Ezio and the canapé lightness of L’ivrogne corrigé, one of the eight opéras comiques he wrote in French.

Some of the operas you may never have heard (or even heard of) – La Semiramide riconosciuta, Antigono and Telemaco – making COC’s programme instructive as well as enjoyable. Not all was as unfamiliar as it first appeared, though, with Orfeo’s Elysian Fields cropping up in an earlier version in Ezio and “Je t’emplore et je tremble” from Iphigénie en Tauride (otherwise unrepresented) appearing as “Berenice, che fai?” from Antigono.

There was more familiar material, with arias from Paride ed Elena, Armide and a brisk, almost perky, performance of Gluck’s most famous moment in Orfeo ed Euridice.

With the young Mozart snapping at his heels towards the end of his career, Gluck set subjects more often associated with the young Salzburger and Page chose selections from Il re pastore and La clemenza di Tito.

Resembling a highlights CD, this delightful evening of excerpts, performed with loving care by Page and the COC orchestra, was indeed being recorded for future release on the Wigmore Live label.