Assignment 7: On This Date--Amir Abou-Jaoude

In 1762, the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck began to write an opera based on the age-old Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. There had been operas based on the subject before, but Gluck's work would be fundamentally different. On October 5, his version of the story, Orfeo ed Euridice, premiered in Vienna. The work was a vanguard in the history of opera. Before Gluck's work, operas had merely been vehicles to showcase star singers. The libretto, or text, of the opera was not connected to the music--in other words, the story of an opera just provided lyrics for simple melodies. Gluck rebelled against the form of opera. His melodies were extremely complex. Gluck's goal was not to glorify singers, as other composers had done before him, but rather to tell a story convincingly through music. Most importantly, the libretto of the opera no longer secondary--it became just as essential as the music. Orfeo was a revolution in opera, and Gluck knew that his work was avant-garde.

Although the premiere on October 5, 1762 was not entirely successful, by 1775, crowds were lining up to hear Gluck's triumph for themselves. Within fifteen years, Orfeo was one of the most popular operas in the repertoire. Orfeo, and Gluck's approach to the art form, had reigned supreme. The style that had existed before Gluck's work was completely gone from the stages of European opera houses. Thousands of Gluck imitators tried to produce similar works, with varying degrees of success. Even today, Orfeo is still interpreted and performed. It is the oldest opera that  is regularly performed at opera houses. Other composers, working long after Gluck's lifetime, continued to study the opera. The most famous musician to do this was Richard Wagner, who embarked on a study of Gluck's works before writing his magnum opus, Tristan und Isolde. (Tristan und Isolde, in turn, would influence all of modern music.)

On October 10, 1947, an equally revolutionary work premiered on the Great White Way. It was Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, and it told the story of an immoral doctor obsessed with fame. In many ways, the musical paralleled the situation of its creators--Rodgers and Hammerstein had been extraordinarily successful with their two previous musicals, Oklahoma and Carousel.  They had become famous, just as the doctor in Allegro, and now they found pressure to duplicate their successes. With their  new musical, the duo was determined to push the boundaries of Broadway even further--they put an unlikable character in the lead. Music filled the piece from beginning to end, and there were few standout songs. Instead, the whole musical consisted of one melody that drove the story forward. Rodgers and Hammerstein were hopeful that their musical would prove just as revolutionary as their two previous efforts.

Yet, Allegro was an enormous failure. It was a flop, and it closed as quickly as it opened. Rodgers and Hammerstein were devastated. They had pushed the limits of the Broadway musical too far. The team would enjoy success again with their musicals South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Still, the duo never recovered from the failure of Allegro, and they repeatedly tried to go back and revise the musical. Allegro was innovative, and it represented the future of musicals, but it was not appreciated at the time. However, one of the ushers on the opening night of the musical was a young Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim, in musicals such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, would continue the revolution started by Allegro. He took the ideas Rodgers and Hammerstein had forged in their failure, and expanded them. Sondheim's musicals were extraordinarily successful. Through Sondheim, the innovations of Allegro would be acclaimed a generation later.

Orfeo e Euridice and Allegro were both groundbreaking works in their respective art forms. The reaction to both works, however, was incredibly varied. Orfeo e Euridice was a success shortly after it was created, and Gluck lived to see his triumph. On the contrary, Allegro, a work just as innovative, was a huge failure, and its genius would only be recognized through the musicals of another composer. Great artistic accomplishments are not always recognized, and innovation is not always rewarded. However, both pieces have stood the test of time. Perhaps Orfeo and Allegro tells us that the initial reaction to an artwork is not important. Rather, the importance of art is judged on if it can remain relevant and innovative in the future.