Iphigénie en Aulide was the first opera that Gluck wrote for Paris, where it was staged in 1774. It’s not done much these days, though Glyndebourne did perform it in 2002 and there are good recordings: from John Eliot Gardiner (Erato, 6/90) and a DVD from Amsterdam in a production by Pierre Audi conducted by Marc Minkowski, where it’s coupled with the better-known Iphigénie en Tauride (Opus Arte, 5/13).

The Greek fleet, ready to depart for Troy, is becalmed at Aulis. Through Calchas, the high priest, the goddess Diana has required king Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. Appalled, Agamemnon tries but fails to prevent the arrival of Iphigenia who, accompanied by her mother Clytemnestra, is on her way to Aulis in order to marry Achilles. At the moment of sacrifice Diana herself intervenes, moved by Iphigenia’s courage and Clytemnestra’s despair: the lovers are united and the fleet sets sail.

During the 1840s Wagner was a Kapellmeister at the court of the King of Saxony in Dresden. His first assignment was to conduct Gluck’s Armide, the success of which encouraged him to make an adaptation of Iphigénie en Aulide. This was performed in 1847, with his brother’s adopted daughter Johanna as Iphigenia and Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient as Clytemnestra; both had appeared in the first performance of Tannhäuser and the latter had created the part of Senta in Der fliegende Holländer.

In the booklet-note to his recording, Gardiner refers to Wagner’s ‘deplorable, inflated version’, but that is nonsense. Gluck’s scoring comprises double woodwind (including clarinets, but they are seldom deployed), pairs of horns and trumpets, timpani and strings. Wagner adds two horns, a trumpet and three trombones plus, for the denouement, extra wind, trumpets and percussion. The brass is used mainly to add weight to the choruses; the recitatives and other passages for strings alone are, by and large, left untouched. A couple of airs and most of the dances are omitted. Wagner’s principal contributions are short introductions, links and postludes. His one significant rewrite comes at the end, where he makes Diana/Artemis spirit Iphigenia away to serve her as a priestess in ‘a distant land’ (Tauris, presumably).

Christoph Spering makes an excellent case for this version, with lively singing from the chorus and equally vigorous playing, the brass splendidly prominent. The male soloists are disappointing, Oliver Zwarg and Christian Elsner both sounding strained. But Michelle Breedt powerfully expresses Clytemnestra’s agony and Camilla Nylund is an ideal Iphigenia: angry, dignified, resigned. The booklet contains the libretto, but only in German.