Our reviewer: Lucrece Maeckelberg wrote this review about the same piece earlier.
With a little imagination, it seemed as if the audience streamed out of the large hall of the Chassé Theater in Breda hopping and dancing. Faces were cheerful and people spoke to each other about the wonderful apotheosis that the music ensemble had given the Breda audience.
Was carnival being celebrated inside? Or was something else going on? The answer is not easy to guess: the visitors had watched an opera. An opera? Carnival? Party? You may have guessed it already, because which opera ends as a dancing celebration? Orphée aux enfers by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880). You know, with that famous Cancan. And Opera Zuid turned this opera in the Chassé theater into a real party.
In the foyer I met several people from Opera Barok, an initiative I started ten years ago to watch a complete baroque opera (sometimes three hours long) on dvd together with interested parties, which I introduced myself. They were all surprised. One of them even asked me if this opera was original. The story and especially the staging seemed rather exaggerated to her. She was used to a baroque version of the Orpheus myth. I often started the season with a baroque opera about Orpheus and Eurydice: L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, La morte d'Orfeo by Stefano Landi, Orfeo by Luigi Rossi, La descente d'Orphée aux enfers by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, or a contemporary version such as the Reisopera (with moving sets) or Orfeo underground by Holland Opera which takes place in an underground parking garage.
In all these operas the same themes are addressed, such as musicality but also the vanity and arrogance of Orpheus, the victim role he assumes, the question of why he looks back as well as the question of why he is not allowed to look back in the first place, and the questionable role of the gods in this myth. And what is Eurydice's role in this? To the present day this has preoccupied countless writers and composers, think of the Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke, The mask of Orpheus and The Corridor by Harrison Birtwisle who died last year, to even a rock opera by Tito Schipa Jr. Since the birth of opera by a group of intellectuals in Florence (the so-called Camerata Fiorentina), who wanted to breathe new life into Greek tragedies by singing them spoken, according to Wikipedia there are some 75 Orpheus operas written! And almost all of them are based on the original myth as passed down by Ovid and Virgil. Not so, however, Jacques Offenbach! He apparently wanted to make short work of all those mystifications surrounding Orpheus and Eurydice. He decided to turn the matter upside down: not a love affair but a hate affair. Eurydice wants to get rid of Orpheus and willingly allows herself to be seduced by Aristeus, who turns out to be the god Pluto in reality, who takes her to the underworld. Orpheus feels elated and liberated, but has reckoned without the landlord of Public Opinion. He finds that Orpheus should behave like a rejected lover and sends him to the gods to account for himself.
And then the real spectacle begins, which Opera Zuid stages in a particularly beautiful way. We find ourselves then on top of Olympus where the gods are bored to death and have had enough of the ambrosia and the nectar. They want something different. An uprising ensues in which supreme god Jupiter is delicately reminded of his escapades, in which he constantly transforms into a swan, a bull or another animal. Moreover, he is blamed for the abduction of Eurydice. Jupiter doesn't need to be told twice. He decides to go to the underworld to prove his innocence. The whole gang of gods decides to go with him. They are up for such an outing!
Meanwhile, Eurydice is also bored in the underworld. She is locked up by Pluto so that the gods cannot find her. But then he has reckoned without Jupiter's cunning, who transforms himself into a fly and manages to get through the keyhole into the cellar where Eurydice is imprisoned. As in all his escapades, he seduces her and together they decide to leave the underworld. But then they again encounter Public Opinion, which says they must adhere to the norms and values that apply to all people and also to the gods. Orpheus must stay with Eurydice. Whereupon Jupiter decides that the two must leave the underworld together on one condition: Orpheus must not look back before he has reached the world above. Of course everyone expects him to do so, as the myth tells. But Offenbach devises a trick and lets Orpheus go up without looking back. To Jupiter's great alarm, who sees his lover slip away. Quickly he grabs his lightning bolt and sends it after the disappearing couple. Orpheus is startled and looks back! Eurydice flees back to the underworld where the feast now truly begins. Together with the gods, a true banquet is held in which Eurydice turns out to be a bacchante, while Orpheus and Public Opinion head back to the world above disappointed.
All this is brought to the stage with verve by Opera Zuid. The singing voices are excellent, the choir sings swirling, the dancers move constantly everywhere in between and the direction is overwhelming. Offenbach would have thoroughly enjoyed this. As did the audience in the Chassé Theater in Breda.
WHAT: Orphée aux enfers, opéra bouffe in four acts by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) with libretto by Hector Crémieux (1828-1893) and Ludovic Halévy (1834-1908). Version Mixte (1858/1874) by Jean Christophe Keck commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes.* With adapted dialogues by Benjamin Prins.
WHERE: Chassé Theater Breda
WHO: Opera Zuid, Theaterkoor Opera Zuid, Philharmonie Zuidnederland conducted by Enrico Delamboye
Still to be seen until: 26 June 2023
Website: https://operazuid.nl/events/orphee-aux-enfers/
