Alceste

Alceste (Gluck). Libretto by Ranieri da Calzabigi; 3 acts; first performance Vienna 1767; Fr. version first performance Paris 1776, conducted by Pierre Montan Berton.

Mythological times. Admetus is dying. The Oracle of Apollo states that he can live only if somebody is sacrificed in his place. His wife, Alceste, offers herself to save her husband. Apollo ultimately decides that they both can live in the original It. version In the rev. Fr. version (1776) it is Hercules who comes to the rescue, overpowering the infernal deities of the underworld to return Alceste to Admetus.