ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD Comes to Den Norske Opera Next Month

High party factor, sophisticated social criticism and a whole lot of sheep and fantastic music: Vidar Magnussen’s version of Orpheus in the Underworld is back!

This is exactly what is needed right now: a wacky world of gods where the party never ends and everyone dances the can-can! At any rate, that is what Eurydice desires. She is tired of the tedious Orpheus and being at his beck and call for what seems like an eternity. The time has come to say no, to laugh and to enjoy an operetta! 

What is an operetta? 

Opera – there are those who believe that opera is stuffy and serious, with nothing but love and death, grief and sorry and very little laughter. Well, for those who think this – think again. Meet opera’s little sister: operetta!  

An operettas pokes fun at opera, at we humans, at gods and at everything serious. And in Orpheus in the Underworld, we poke fun in Norwegian in a completely new reinterpretation of the classic myth. 

Mythically beautiful singing  

There are several operas about Orpheus, who loses his wife, but sings so beautifully that he is allowed to descend into Hades, the kingdom of the dead, to rescue her. But what if Orpheus is actually happy to be rid of Eurydice? And what if she does not actually want to be rescued? 

For ordinary folk 

Offenbach’s operetta is such an alternative version. It toys with the myth, with upper-class taste and with power-hungry authorities. In Paris in 1858, some found this offensive, while others found it to be liberating and exciting.  

Both die-hard fans and the offended will have plenty of opinions on Orpheus in the Underworld. And all of them was incorporated into the performance as ‘public opinion’. We refer to them as ‘ordinary folk’ and ordinary folk have opinions on just about everything: on opera, on the story and on how it should end. But the ending will not be revealed here because ordinary folk do not like spoilers. 

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