LA FAVOLA D'ORFEO From Killer Queen Opera Co. Begins Performances This Week

On June 29th and 30th, Killer Queen Opera Co. will be producing its next fully-staged production: Claudio Monteverdi's La Favola d'Orfeo.

KQO is a NYC-based, female-led arts organization dedicated to featuring female artists, artists of diverse backgrounds, and the LGBTQ+ community through artistic experiences that bring awareness to issues that our communities face today.

June 29th at Our Lady of Victory Church (Donation-based Ticket)

June 30th at The Cutting Room (Ticketed)

Killer Queen Opera's production of L'Orfeo follows Orpheus through the stages of grief as they grapple with their partner Eurydice's death. In the wake of her loss, Orpheus dreams of bargaining with Plutone, the god of the underworld, to get her back. This realization of the opera sees Orpheus as a member of a tightly knit NYC community in a not-so-distant dystopia, while the underworld of Ancient Greece is seen through the surrealist world of Orfeo's dreams. Through immersive theater, audience members will follow Orpheus through their trials of the underworld.

For more info, please visit: killerqueenopera.com/orfeo/.

About La Favola d'Orfeo:

Written in 1607, L'Orfeo adapts a classic, Greek myth, as Orpheus descends into the underworld to rescue and revive their wife, Eurydice. Our production sets L'Orfeo out of the ancient world and launches it in a surrealist-modern day. Torn between grief and hope, Orpheus begins to dream that he can rescue Eurydice. Grief – embodied by movement – follows him relentlessly like a chain, awakening him from his dreams, while Hope brings Eurydice into their dreams.

This setting will fuse contemporary movement, baroque gesture, and opera. It will explore the relentless drone of grief and its impact on our minds, bodies, and spirits. It offers a window into the pain of permanence balances with optimism, hope, and the brain's process of understanding and accepting loss.

“Our production of Monteverdi's 'La Favola d'Orfeo' is an immersive performance exploring the toll of grief and the process of understanding and accepting loss through community,” says Swanson. “ While traditionally set in Ancient Greece, we explore themes of loss and community by recontextualizing the Orpheus myth 50 years from today, in the wake of climate catastrophe. After losing their wife, Eurydice, Orpheus (portrayed by sopranist Jay St. Flono) enters a surrealist dream state, envisioning a reality in which they can transcend mortality to rescue her. Thus Grief drives Orpheus's descent, not into an underworld, but into a place of denial, isolation, and fantasy. Only through the support of their community can acceptance and healing begin in the wake of death's immutable toll. Surrealism seeps through the orchestra with the addition of electric guitar. Contemporary movement is woven into the “baroque world,” while baroque music infiltrates the “future world.”
KQO's L'Orfeo cultivates an experimental operatic experience that unites the old and the new, resonating with contemporary audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

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