Gluck | Echo and Narcissus

Following five consecutive triumphs at the Paris Opera since 1774, which cemented his reputation as the reformer of French lyric art, the Chevalier Gluck—also known as the Bohemian Juggler—was adored by the public and protected by Queen Marie-Antoinette.
The new commission from the Royal Academy of Music would also be his final work: Echo and Narcissus, based on Metamorphoses by Ovid, premiered in Paris in 1779. With a style leaning more toward pastoral than heroic tragedy, it baffled audiences who had come expecting another groundbreaking feat from Gluck; in reality, he had composed a tribute to the splendor of the French tradition. Disappointed by this reception, Gluck returned to Vienna and stopped composing.
Since then, Echo and Narcissus has been waiting for the chance to be heard and appreciated by the public once again.

It was a meeting between Le Concert Spirituel and the Fondation Etrillard, whose mission is to rediscover forgotten works, that brought Gluck’s opera out of the shadows. This event is also an opportunity to bring music and the art of tapestry into dialogue around a shared theme, embodied by two pieces from the Fondation Etrillard collection. It is a Narcissus admiring his reflection, produced around 1630 after a cartoon by Simon Vouet, and Echo and Narcissus, woven at the Gobelins Manufactory around 1700 after Antoine Dieu. Both works were presented to the public during the concert at the Royal Opera.

Hervé Niquet and a brilliant cast revive Gluck's final work for both recording and concert. The fates of the nymph Echo, who can only endlessly repeat the last words she hears, and the proud Narcissus, condemned to love only his own reflection, are truly worthy of a baroque opera.