About the work
Paride ed Elena is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, drawing on Ovid's 'Heroides'. It premiered on 3 November 1770 at the Burgtheater in Vienna and is the third of Gluck's Viennese reform operas after 'Orfeo ed Euridice' and 'Alceste'.
Plot
The Trojan prince Paris comes to Sparta to woo Queen Helen. Helen resists at first, but with the help of Cupid disguised as a friend, she eventually admits her feelings. The goddess Pallas Athena warns of the disaster to come, yet the couple decide to leave together for Troy.
Cultural significance
Unlike 'Orfeo' and 'Alceste', 'Paride ed Elena' fared poorly with Viennese audiences — only about 25 performances by 1800, against well over a hundred for 'Orfeo'. Gluck never brought the work to Paris, and it fell into neglect for much of the 19th century before being rediscovered in the 20th.