ABSTRACT
In Vienna after 1760, Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck embarked on an ambitious quest 'to revivify the serious musico-dramatic arts, to free them from the convention-bound complacency in which they seemed to be mired'. Gluck worked the first two operas in French for Paris, where he also composed two further operas embodying the new musico-dramatic style – Iphigenie en Aulide and Iphigenie en Tauride. Iphigeneia among the Taurians is 'light' by the standards of the most celebrated Greek tragedies, and is one of a minority of surviving dramas with a happy ending; but Euripides addresses serious concerns of his Athenian audience. Nicolas-Francois Guillard presents Iphigenie as innocent simply because her inner soul revolts against barbarism; in his libretto Iphigenie's pure moral character protects her from being tainted by the past deeds of her ancestors or by the customs of the Taurians. Guillard also created a brief evocation of Euripides' theme of nostalgia, 'Ill-fated homeland'.
