In 1965 I was a shaved-head conscript in the Argentine Navy. I had a lovely girlfriend of Austrian extraction who one day told me, “You are an uncouth and uncultured man. I am going to take you to see a couple of operas at the Teatro Colón.”

I put on my heavy wool Botany Bay American suit (it was one of those sweltering December Buenos Aires summers) and my first opera was Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel. The second one (still in that suit) was Christoph Willibald Gluck’s — Orfeo ed Euridice.

Because it was 1965 only a scholar would have known of the existence of Claudio Monteverdi’s early 1607 opera (better called Favola in Musica) L’Orfeo.

But I find it amazing that in this day and age where music genres are shifting to each other that nobody would have mentioned that other Orfeo. That other Orfeo contained some of the most achingly beautiful music of the 20^th century.

The work in question is French director Marcel Camus’s 1959 film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). Its music features three Brazilian composer/performes who since then have become legends. They are     Luiz Bonfá, Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto. Perhaps to North American people there is perhaps no knowledge that one of the writers was the poet Vinicius de Moraes.

Of him Wikipedia states:

Lyricist, essayist, and playwright who later became a seminal figure in modern Brazilian music and literature. He served as a diplomat; composed his own bossa nova music; and as an interpreter of his own lyrics, recorded several albums.

 Because I am Latin American and because I happen to like jazz, the release in 1962 of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s Jazz Samba marked a moment in my life that I have never forgotten. The movement called Bossa Nova might have been ushered in by Orfeu Negro.

Opening theme in the film 

Of the Monteverdi L’Orfeo I grilled Ian Fenlon, Professor Emeritus of Historical Musicology, Cambridge University about the work at his very good talk on October 31 at the Green College.

Iain Fenlon

He told me that there was no evidence that Gluck might have known about the Monteverdi Orfeo as 150 years had passed. I noted that the librettist of the 1607 work Alessandro Striggio wrote a poem, Rinaldo that years later became that famous Handel opera. Fenlon nodded negatively so I will have to keep my theory in check.

Coincidentally and it is only coincidence (Fenlon hinted at) many of Monteverdi’s beginnings and endings in L’Orfeo feature chaconnes (my absolute faves) and Gluck’s work has a dance section called Chaconne.

Getting back to the sumptuous performance at the Chan on October 29 there were some instances that are now etched in my memory. One of them was Orfeo’s (Colin Baltzer, tenor) Possente Spirto in the third act. Baltzer told me that it is unique in opera. But I also noticed how it all began with 2 violins, Tekla Cunningham and Ingrid Matthews and then the addition of two theorboss (the 6ft 2inch long ones) John Lenti ad Stephen Stubbs, and the organ, Henry Lebedinsky. Then it was the entrance of two cornettos (cornetti?) Kiri Tollaksen and Alexandra Opsahl. One of the cornettists played backstage for that striking echo effect. If that was not enough the two violins and the cello, David Morris, played with Maxine Eilander’s harp and she even had a solo part!

What was the second instance eteched in my memory? It is not ofted that I have the pleasure of being able to listen to two Theorbos (John Lenti and Stephen Stubbs). It was the former who confirmed my suspicion that Stubbs at 6ft 1 inch is just one inch shorter than his theorbo.

All I can add is that musical director the Pacific MusicWorks Orhcestra, Stephen Stubbs has just the right touch to make this work seem like they were playing for the duke in a small salon. The duke, of course was yours truly!

I might add that I was witness to the 2000 Orfeo in Vancouver in which Colin Baltzer was one of the shepherds. I was pleasantly delighted to find out that Euridice played by Tess Altiveros (with ringlets her dark hair would have made her look like a most Grecian Penelope) was my cababayan. Both are mothers are Filipino.

Matthew Treviño, the baritone who sang Caronte looked the part with his gray/black hair. The handsome man’s father is from Monterrey. In Mexico we calle them regiomontanos.

And I could not possible finish this without mentioning that the Dark Horse Ensemble won my heart.