(As altered by Gluck for Paris; sung by the tenor Legros. From a manuscript copy, Bibliothèque de l’Opéra.)
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(As sung by Mme. Viardot-Garcia, Théâtre-Lyrique, Paris; the part being restored to the original voice and key, but the change at the end, made for Legros, retained.)
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The finale to the first act was also changed; a tumultuous “hurry” for strings, evidently designed to accompany the change of scene to Hades, being now replaced by a florid air, probably introduced at the desire of the principal singer as a medium for the display of his vocal virtuosity; a concession often exacted from composers of opera. This interpolated air was for a long time attributed to a composer—Bertoni—who had himself composed an opera on the subject of Orphée. Later researches have, however, proved that this air is by Gluck himself, taken from Aristeo, one of his earlier works. When the famous revival of Orphée took place at the old Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris, the rôle of Orphée was restored to the type of voice—contralto—for which it was originally composed, and confided to Mme. Pauline Viardot-Garcia. She retained the air introduced for the tenor Legros, but of course transposed, and with a reorchestration by Camille Saint-Saëns; the now famous composer having at that time, by the request of Berlioz, undertaken to continue and complete the revision of Gluck’s complete works, known as the Pelletan Edition.[3]
Other changes from the first Italian score were also made by Gluck in the later French version. Here is an example; being the recitative immediately preceding the great air of Orpheus in the last act:
