Paride ed Elena

Paride ed Elena (Paris and Helen) was the third and last of Gluck’s so-called reform operas written in reaction to the over-complication and stylisation of Italian opera (opera seria). First performed in Vienna in 1770, it received a mixed reception—being thought emotionally cool and dramatically thin—and Gluck subsequently turned his attention exclusively to French opera. In ancient Greece, Paris seeks the love of Helen—the most beautiful woman in the world—but their elopement to Troy will ultimately result in the Trojan War. The opera narrates the painful progress of their love, expedited by Cupid who persuades Helen to choose love over duty. Although the opera ends optimistically, the gods warn that their joy will soon turn to sorrow. One of Gluck’s reforms was to make the overture relevant to the drama, and here for the first time it actually anticipates the events of the plot using music from later in the opera. Gluck’s main dramatic innovation was to portray the two peoples very differently: the Trojans, and their leader Paris, are mostly melodious, while the Spartans and their queen are given rougher music. In practice, this meant that Helen’s music was perhaps too spartan to convey her seductive, sympathetic qualities—she has just two arias. Paris’ first love aria “O del mio dolce” is so emotionally charged that a century later Tchaikovsky arranged it for orchestra.