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Title: The Cover Tells It All
Review: This opera is played by an excellent orchestra led by the excellent John Eliot Gardiner. The singing seems well-done though several of the main singers seem to sing in a style more appropriate for a later musical period with relatively pronounced vibrato. The real problem for me is Gluck's music. It is intended to be simple and unadorned as indeed the case. I find little merit or interest init. What is worse is that the stage action is very stylized and static. During an aria, it is possible that the singer will remain almost expressionless and perhaps raise his/her hand in two or three stages from waist to shoulder level. A background of stationary figues on the stage may remain almost unmoving for long periods. My wife calls this human hieroglyphics and she, justly, refuses to watch it even though the singing is quite good.
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