The monotonous texture of solo singing with virtually no duets or ensembles is broken only by the chorus, a very welcome change. It took substantial doses of the excellent coffee provided by the opera to keep awake. And, yes,Handel was right-there is not the tiniest hint of counterpoint.
Sturm und Drang has definitely died by this time. The music is endlessly soothing and peaceful. In this manner they kill off an old couple at the end, and the opera ends with both Admete and Alceste dying. In the Santa Fe production a sign saying "La Mort" is carried out and when it is wrapped around someone, that means they died.
Operas still usually had happy endings in that era. It isn't clear exactly what's going on, but there is intended to be a happy ending. Then Apollo appears and allows both of them to live. Death gives the choice to Alceste, but Hercules persuades them all to return. There's a scene where Admete and Alceste compete over who will die. Hercules appears and all descend into hell.
The king hounds Alceste until she admits that it is she who will die in his place. We are seeing the French version which includes a lot of ballet, performed primarily by dancers costumed as imps from hell. The time and place for the opera would seem to be almost modern Greece. Then in the second act when he has recovered, he does a Greek dance with members of the ballet. In this production they drag the dying king around the stage throughout the first act even though he has no lines. I'm giving the plot because nobody knows this opera. When he recovers, she is still alive, and he asks her why she is not happy and celebrating with the others. Admete (ad-MET-uh), the king of Thessaly, is dying, and the oracle says that if someone else will volunteer to die, he will be spared. If it's Wednesday at the Santa Fe Opera, it must be Gluck's Alceste, pronounced al-SEST-uh when they are singing her name in the opera.
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