There is no question where the spotlight falls in this recording. The glorious Italianate tenor of Juan Diego Flórez is the centre of attention throughout and was clearly the raison d’être of the three concert performances given in the summer of 2008 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, from which this live recording is taken.

Gluck fashioned the 1774 Paris version of Orphée et Eurydice to be sung by an haute-contre, a specially high breed of tenor, of which Rousseau complained: “It is not natural in a man’s voice…[and] always has some harshness and is rarely in tune.” Needless to say, the high quality of Flórez’s singing never falters for a second. There is no harshness to be heard and his intonation is never suspect. From the opening scene he sings the most aristocratic of legato lines, which are a constant source of pleasure, and as an ace Rossini tenor has the agility needed for the showpiece aria “L’espoir renaît”.

Is he a moving Orphée? Yes and no. The clean-cut Italianate style, combined with the glowing ardour of his tenor, imbues Flórez’s Orphée with a distinctive classical fire but the effect remains generalised. He rarely responds in detail to the shifting moods of the drama, at least until “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice”, where the involvement suddenly feels complete. His main tenor rivals on disc include Léopold Simoneau and Nicolai Gedda and it was unwise of the booklet-notes to reproach them for transposing down parts of the role. Flórez himself takes “Laissez-vous toucher” in Act 2 and the duet “Viens, suis un époux” in Act 3 down a semitone. Like them, he is singing with a conventional orchestra at modern pitch and even with transpositions is almost certainly reaching higher – he hits a high C sharp briefly – than Gluck would have expected.

The rest of the cast do not let him down. Ainhoa Garmendia makes a warmly sympathetic Eurydice, Alessandra Marianelli a gleaming L’Amour, and the live recording – as these were concert performances, there are no stage bumps and bangs – is perfectly acceptable. Jesús López-Cobos has rehearsed his Madrid orchestra and chorus with care but Minkowski’s recording with period instruments is a world away in expressive depth and vitality (Archiv, 11/04). Anybody wanting the 1774 Paris version of the opera has a clear first choice there. Incidentally, the ending of the score is rearranged here, with Gluck’s concluding Chaconne cut and the ensemble “L’Amour triomphe” moved to the end. The message is clear: Flórez, as the star of the evening, was needed to provide the final flourish, and that remains just as true of this recording.