Juan Diego Flórez is singing Orfeus beautifully on the new double Cd from Decca, presenting Orphée and Eurydice together with Ainhoa Garmendia as Eyrydice and with Alessandro Marianelli as Amor.

This is an outstanding new recording of Christoph Willibald Gluck´s epoc-making opera, sung in the French version of 1774, featuring one of today´s leading bel canto tenor Juan Diego Flórez as Orpheus and the acclaimed soprano Ainhoa Garmendia as Euridice
. It is recorded live together with the Choir and Symohonic Orchester del Teatro Real in Madrid conducted by Jesús López-Cobos
. It is a good recording. Not only is the singing wonderful, but all the many orchestral parts are played with deapness and great feeling, and some of the famous orchestraparts with for exempel flute solo as The dance of the Blessed Spirits are being performed in the very best way
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The voice type of Orpheus is a problem for present-day performers in any of Gluck´s versions. Contraltos, mezzo-sopranos and more recently counter-tenors can encompass the range of the castrato in the original Italian version, albeit with a very different vocal quality. However the tessitura of the haute-contre Orpheus is so challenging high thaat it lies within the range of very few modern tenors, although it must be remembered that in eighteenth-century France pitch was as much as a whole tone lower than that now used
. However this version with Juan Diego Flórez is a success, it sounds good, he has the power, the beauty and the dramatic sence needed, and it is a peasure to listen to

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This French version from 1774, is discussed whether it should be regarded as Gluck´s definitive version, the French score certainly represents the composer´s final thoughts on his masterpiece and many would argue that it is also superior, both musically and dramatically, to the more concise Vienna original from 1762, which many are favouring.