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Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) · sheet music

  • Key C major
  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 7–9
  • Passages 6

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Christoph Willibald Gluck, German classical (1714–1787). The reading release has 6 passages from this piece at levels 7–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 13–20 at level 9.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice).

  1. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 7
  2. The hardest bars · bars 13–20 level 9

How to play Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

  1. Tempo:Gluck marks it Andante con moto, a walking pace that keeps moving. It should sound simple and flowing, never like a slow funeral march.
  2. Right hand:The right hand sings the vocal line, so play it as legato as you can and shape each phrase toward its peak note.
  3. Left hand:The left hand supplies the orchestra's steady harmony. Keep it even and slightly quieter than the tune.
  4. Hands together:Practice with the left hand playing very quietly and the right hand slowly, listening to how each new bass note changes the color of the tune.
  5. Dynamics:Give the episodes a little more urgency, then draw back for each return of the refrain so the contrast tells the story.
  6. Pedal:Use the pedal sparingly in the refrain. Change it with each chord so the accompaniment stays clear.
  7. Reading:The refrain sits in C major with few accidentals; when sharps or flats appear in an episode, slow down and read them before you play.
  8. Practice:Sing the refrain aloud, in English or on a syllable, before playing it. Knowing where a singer would breathe tells you where to phrase.

Common mistakes

  • Playing the refrain too slowly so it sounds like a dirge. Fix: Find a tempo you could dance to gently and keep it there.
  • Treating the accompaniment as equal to the melody. Fix: Practice the left hand alone at half the volume of the right.
  • Missing accidentals in the episodes. Fix: Pencil a small circle around each accidental and practice those bars alone.
  • Making each return of the refrain sound identical. Fix: Plan a small difference in touch or dynamic for each return.

Structure: rondo

The aria is built around a refrain, a steady, songlike tune that returns between contrasting episodes in which Orpheus calls out for Euridice. Each return of the refrain lands differently because of what has come before it. On the page you read the vocal line and the orchestra as piano music.

A · Refrain (C major)
A smooth, songlike tune over plain harmony. The reading task is long, mostly stepwise phrases over an even accompaniment.
B · Episode
A contrasting passage between statements of the refrain; read it as a new phrase with its own shape before the tune returns.
A · Refrain returns
The tune you already know comes back, so this is the place to focus on tone and phrasing rather than notes.

About Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

Che farò senza Euridice is sung by Orpheus in the third act of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, after he has lost his wife a second time. The opera premiered on October 5, 1762, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, and the title role was written for the alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni. It was the first of Gluck's reform operas, which aimed for a noble simplicity.

The aria is a rondo, with a main tune that keeps coming back. Instead of a minor-key dirge, Gluck set Orpheus's despair in C major at a walking pace, and its harmonies do not sound obviously mournful. Some critics found it emotionally detached; Gluck insisted it depended on fine execution, warning that a small change in delivery would turn it into a puppet's dance.

Gluck revised the opera for Paris in 1774 as Orphée et Eurydice, in French, with Orpheus recast for high tenor and the ballet expanded. Hector Berlioz prepared a new version in 1859 for the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot.

  • The first Orpheus, Gaetano Guadagni, was reputedly a fine actor and had taken lessons from the London actor David Garrick.
  • Gluck's reform opera has no da capo arias at all, using strophic songs and recitative instead.
  • Unlike the myth, the opera ends happily: the god Amore brings Euridice back to life.
  • Haydn conducted the Italian version at Eszterháza in 1776.

Why the first passage is level 7

That passage is level 7 rather than 6 because it has syncopated rhythms.

This is a piano reading of a voice-and-orchestra aria. The right hand usually carries the sung melody and the left hand stands in for the orchestra, so read the top line as one connected tune.

Questions about Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)

How hard is Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) to play?
Its passages grade from level 7 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 13–20 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 7, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-7 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 7 because it has syncopated rhythms.
What key and time signature is Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) in?
Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) is in C major, no sharps or flats. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)?
Christoph Willibald Gluck, German classical (1714–1787). Che farò senza Euridice is sung by Orpheus in the third act of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, after he has lost his wife a second time.
Can I practice Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 6 graded passages from Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What does Che farò senza Euridice mean?
It is Italian for What shall I do without Euridice? Orpheus sings it after losing his wife for the second time.
Why does such a sad aria sound so calm?
Gluck set it in C major at a walking pace, with harmonies that are not obviously mournful. He said the aria only works with fine execution, and that small changes would make it sound like a dance for marionettes.
Which version of Orfeo does the aria come from?
It comes from the 1762 Vienna version in Italian. In the 1774 Paris version, sung in French, it became J'ai perdu mon Eurydice, and Berlioz made a further version in 1859.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 6 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 7
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 9
bars 13–20 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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