Christoph Willibald Gluck Orphee et Eurydice (1774 tenor version in French) No. 5. Dance of the Furies ( Richard Croft, Mireille Delunsch, Marion Harousseau Claire Delgado Boge; Marc Minkowski)

Though originally set to an Italian libretto, Orfeo ed Euridice, Gluck s first step in his reform of the operatic form, owes much to the genre of French opera, particularly in its extensive use of accompanied recitative and a general absence of vocal virtuosity. In fact, it is generally supposed that Gluck frankly took Rameau s Castor et Pollux as his model when he sat down to compose Orfeo : indeed, the plot of the earlier work, in particular, the rescue of Pollux by Castor from the infernal regions, br, br,