Gluck: “Che Faró” from the opera “Orfeo ed Euridice”: For Cello

Here is the sheet music for the famous aria “Che Faró?” (“What Shall I Do”)” from Gluck’s (1714-1787) opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” (1760) in a transcription for cello. The aria is preceded by a powerful “recitativo” where Orfeo, sometimes sobbing, sometimes shouting, overwhelmed by pain, laments the death of his beloved, caused by his own carelessness. After this dramatic recitativo comes the beautiful, moving aria. This aria, in the key into which we have transposed it, lies always in the Neck Region and therefore does not require an “Easier Version”.

Edited Performance Version      Clean Performance Version     Piano Score

A play-along audio of the piano accompaniment can be found here below. If we actually download it then we can play it at different tempi with the wonderfully useful and simple Amazing Slowdowner program:

 
A video performance of this transcription can be seen here