Gluck’s great achievement in the world of opera was to move music away from the formal conventions of the period, replacing long stretches of recitative with orchestral accompaniments, which greatly improved the dramatic flow. Gluck’s command of dramatic atmosphere, for instance in the Dance of the Furies, and of expressive vocal line, exemplified by the opera’s most famous aria, Che farò?, is remarkable, and still has the capacity to move and captivate the listener in this recording of the original 1762 version of Orfeo ed Euridice.