The following discography for Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice is mainly based on the research of Giuseppe Rossi, which appeared in the programme notes to the performance of the work at the 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2007, under the title "Discografia – Christoph Willibald Gluck – Orfeo ed Euridice (Orphée et Eurydice)". Rossi's data has been checked against the sources referenced in the notes.
The discography gives the language of the recording as well as the version performed, although the recordings often mix different editions of the work or are even based on new ones created "from scratch." In the most significant cases, such mixed versions are described in detail. The term "pasticcio" (which has no negative connotation in this context) has been used for recordings where the different versions are inextricably mixed.
^according to Stanley Sadie in his review for Gramophone, February 1995, p. 93, 'this performance follows a mixture of the Italian version and the French, including a number of favourite pieces from the latter ... but a very modest number of ballet movements, with none at all at the end'. For his part Rossi does not declare the version followed by this recording.
^with very lengthy cuts (Rossi, p. 67). On the contrary, according to Matteo Marazzi it is the Ricordi edition; this statement is also supported by the reviewer (JBS) for Gramophone, November 1993, p. 152
^ abcwith cuts and additions from the Paris version (Rossi, p. 65)
^according to Matteo Marazzi, it is, on the contrary, the Dörffel edition in German, but this is obviously a mistake, as the recording is actually sung in Italian
^this is the first stereo recording (Rossi, p. 68)
^Giudici writes that, as far as it may be worthy of note, this recording follows, as it were, philologically, the Ricordi edition, "without including passages extracted or reworked from the other" versions: the only exception is leaving out "the aria 'Addio o miei sospiri' at the close of Act 1, substituting for it the orchestral coda existing in the Vienna version" (p.254)
^with additions extracted from the Paris version and vocal ornaments inserted by Mackerras himself (Rossi, p. 65), attempting at the "recreation of a credible eighteenth century singing style" (id., p. 68)
^This studio recording conducted by Neumann was "the first that followed without cuts or additions the Vienna version according to the critical edition by Anna Amalie Abert and Ludwig Finscher" (Rossi, p. 68)
^the inextricable character of the "patchwork" of different versions that has been carried out in this recording, is so described by Elvio Giudici, in a very colourful way: "Orpheus sides with Vienna in 'Chiamo il mio ben così' and with Berlioz revised by Ricordi as to the recitatives of Act 1 in general ...; to the Furies speaking the dialect of Vienna, he responds in the language derived from Berlioz, apart from 'Men tiranno [sic]' where he speaks Viennese; the aria of Act 3 follows Ricordi, but is concluded by the Vienna orchestral coda" (p. 254). "It is however also necessary – adds Giuseppe Rossi for his part, – to mention the sumptuous and lively cut of Solti's nineteenth century taste performance, and the prominence achieved by Horne's rendering of Orpheus, unassailable in terms of technical stature and breathtaking virtuosity in performing the florid passages of Bertoni's aria", Addio, addio, o miei sospiri (p. 68)
^there are, in fact, two different (studio and live) audio recordings, practically contemporaneous with the video recording described in the next item
^it is a video recorded contemporaneously with the two audio recordings described in the previous item
^the part of Orpheus, transposed down an octave for baritone, is here performed by a Wagnerianheldentenor, while Cupid is sung by a boy soprano, with a general outcome to which Giuseppe Rossi refers as "one of the awkwardest chapters in the discography of the opera" (p. 69)
^adaptation – by David Alagna, director, and Frédérico Alagna, scenographer – of the 1774 Paris version: it is called "Absurd" in Paolo Gallarati's review published in La Stampa, Turin, 10 January 2008, and "a travesty to be gingerly avoided" in Robert Croan's (Opera News, June 2010 – vol. 74, n. 12)
^the role of Cupid, renamed in this odd edition "Le guide" (the guide), is performed by a baritone
^live recording of the performances held at Madrid's Teatro Real, between May and June 2008
^Three-disc set presenting both a mashup of the 1762 Vienna and 1774 Paris versions, in Italian (CD 1), and a complete recording of the 1762 version (CD 1 & 2); the first disc matches how the company had performed the opera in concert (cf: Deutsche Grammophon Website; James Manheim's review in AllMusic).
^live recording of performances held at La Scala in March 2018.
^The overture is replaced with the Larghetto from Gluck’s ballet Don Juan, which there precedes the Dances of the Furies. Moreover the finale is completely rearranged, by cutting the trio 'Tendre Amour' – as Berlioz too did – and the whole dance divertissement. The opera concludes "with the second choral lament from Act 1 and the ensuing Ritournelle, heavily accented" (Richard Lawrence, Gluck. Orphée et Eurydice (Pichon. Bicket), «Gramophone», Gennaio 2020).
^recording catalogued TodOpera, p. 295 and p. 647(in Spanish) (accessed 1 August 2010); not listed by Giuseppe Rossi (op. cit.); according to operadis-opera-discography.org (accessed 14 May 2011) it contains "highlights"
Giudici, Elvio, L'opera in CD e video – Guida all'ascolto, (in Italian) Milano, Il Saggiatore, 1995. ISBN88-428-0279-4
Jeremy Hayes, Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice – The 1774 Paris version, essay published in 2010 by Decca Records in the booklet enclosed to Jesús Lópes-Cobos's 2008 recording (CD)
Patricia Howard (ed.), C.W. von Gluck: Orfeo, Cambridge/New York/Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1981 (consulted edition: series "Cambridge Opera Handbooks" (paperback), 2010, ISBN0-521-29664-1)
Arthur Hutchings, Gluck and Reform Opera, essay published in 1970 by Decca Records in the booklet enclosed to Sir Georg Solti's 1969 recording (LP)
Sir Charles Mackerras, Berlioz: the best of both worlds, in P. Howard (ed.), C.W. von Gluck: Orfeo (op. cit., pp. 99–105)
Carlo Manfriani and Sara Bertelli (eds.), 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's Programme for the performances of Orfeo ed Euridice, (in Italian) 2007 (Bologna, Edizioni Pendragon. ISBN978-88-8342-551-6)
Matteo Marazzi, Backstage: La discografia di Orfeo e Euridice, (in Italian)«Opera Disc»
Roberto Rossi, Discografia – Christoph Willibald Gluck – Orfeo ed Euridice (Orphée et Eurydice), (in Italian) essay included in the 70th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's Programme for the performances of Orfeo ed Euridice, 2007 (cf. above, C. Manfriani, pp. 60–71)
