Details

Orpheus' trip to the Underworld to recover Eurydice. First performed in 1858 and perhaps the first ever full-length classical operetta, this opera is perhaps most famous for the 'Can Can', or as it is properly called, 'The Infernal Gallop'. Orpheus can't stand his wife, Eurydice, and is delighted when she is bitten by a poisonous snake and carried off to the underworld by Pluto. Public Opinion confronts the overjoyed Orpheus and demands that he follows her to Hades and bring Eurydice back. With his much vaunted reputation at stake he has to agree. His journey takes an unusual path and by the end it seems that everyone wants Eurydice but who will she choose?

Creatives/Company

Music: Offenbach
Lyrics(s): Ludivoc Halevy, Hector-Jonathan Cremieux
Company: Reading Operatic Society