Iphigénie en Aulide

Iphigénie en Aulide (Iphigeneia in Aulis) is an opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and was based on Jean Racine's tragedy Iphigénie. It was premiered on 19 April 1774 by the Paris Opéra in the second Salle du Palais-Royal and revived in a slightly revised version the following year.

A German version was made in 1847 by Richard Wagner, with significant alterations.

At first, Iphigénie was not popular, except for its overture which was applauded generously. After the premiere, it was billed for three days in April 1774, but its first run was interrupted by the theatre's six-week closure due to the dying of Louis XV.Iphigénie en Aulide returned to the theatre on 10 January 1775, and was revived annually from 1776 to 1824 with a few exceptions. During that 50-year span from 1774 to 1824, it was performed in Paris more than 400 times, and eventually turned out to be Gluck's most frequently performed opera in Paris.

For the 1775 revival, "Gluck revised Iphigénie en Aulide ... introducing the goddess Diana (soprano) at the end of the opera as a dea ex machina, and altering and expanding the divertissements ... So, broadly speaking, there are two versions of the opera; but the differences are by no means so great or important as those between Orfeo ed Euridice and Orphée et Euridice or between the Italian and the French Alceste".

In 1847 Richard Wagner presented a revised German version of Gluck's opera, Iphigenia in Aulis, at the court of Dresden. Wagner edited, re-scored and revised the opera significantly including a different ending and some other passages of his own composition. Wagner's version of the opera is available on Eichhorn's 1972 LP recording, and was also revived at the 1984 Waterloo Festival with Alessandra Marc as Iphigenia. Wagner's finale translated back into French was also performed in the 2002/2003 La Scala production conducted by Riccardo Muti.

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