Orpheus in the Underworld

by Jacques Offenbach

seen at the London Coliseum on 30 October 2019

ENO are presenting four Orpheus related operas this season; this is the second that I have seen. Sian Edwards conducts Ed Lyon as Orpheus and Mary Bevan as Eurydice, with Alex Otterburn as Pluto, Willard White as Jupiter and Lucia Lucas as Public Opinion in a production directed by Emma Rice and designed by Lizzie Clachan.

Offenbach's opera is a satirical response to the boring conventional dramas and operas of his and the preceding generations which were heavily reliant on sententious classical subjects and allusions. Originally written in two acts in 1858 and expanded to four in 1874, it became one of his greatest successes, and is of course the origin of the famous tun now associated with the can-can. The story certainly subverts the classic myth, with Orpheus and Eurydice detesting one another and Orpheus colluding with the plot engineered by Pluto (disguised as Aristaeus) to kill Eurydice. She in turn is at first happy to find that the shepherd she has been in love with is actually a god, though 'life' in Hades soon palls. In the meantime the gods on Olympus are mercilessly sent up as somnolent and self-indulgent hedonists eager for a thrilling distraction in Hades, while the mortals are trifled with in the denouement, Orpheus tricked by a thunderbolt from Jupiter into looking back at Eurydice, and she in turn handed of by the king of the gods to be a priestess of Bacchus.

The music, on the whole lighthearted or lyrical (as ever, almost reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan, but with French rather than English sensibilities about humour and mockery) underlines the cynicism of the story; it requires a lightness of touch in the singers which is best achieved by Alex Otterburn as a slinky and self-regarding Pluto; Mary Bevan sings spiritedly in an interpretation of Eurydice which is weighted with more consciousness of exploitation than Offenbach probably intended, and Ed Lyon does well as Orpheus. The gods are somewhat too static; but (apart from Jupiter) they do not have much to work with.

Emma Rice has decided that the existence of multiple versions of both text and music has given her licence to reconstruct the piece to her liking, and so she herself has 'freely adapted' the book and Tom Morris the lyrics. We are given a back story to explain how the love match of violin-playing Orpheus and young Eurydice developed into a marriage poisoned by tension, and the distasteful aspect of the gods' callousness is emphasised by making Hades into a sleazy region of peep shows and striptease bars, with Eurydice a prime exhibit for raincoat-clad voyeurs. Her victim status is underlined by her singing of the can-can song as a cry of desperation, although at other points (the flirtation with Aristaeus, or with Jupiter disguised as a fly) she seems willing enough to enjoy what appears to be attractively on offer.

The production is not successful, because the frothy music cannot bear the weight of the darker themes. The dumb-show of family tragedy during the overture makes the appearance of Public Opinion directly asking the audience if they are having a good time both unexpected and inappropriate, and there is much else where amusement is undercut by the uncomfortable awareness that everyone on stage is disreputable in a way that is no longer felt to be funny. We can only laugh innocently at visual gags like a flock of sheep represented by black-clad figure baa-ing behind large white balloons; the comedy of the situation is largely lost due to Emma Rice's determination to make us sympathise with the predicament of Orpheus and Eurydice instead of seeing their cynical approach as part of the bankruptcy of stale veneration of the classics.

This is largely the result of untrammelled director's opera. In the programme note, Emma Rice is quoted as saying 'None of them [the versions of the libretto and the available translations] said what I wanted to say'. This is the distillation of a serious problem with many modern opera productions - the presumption that they should be about what the director wants to say. We seem to have lost sight of the idea that a good production might profitably explore what the composer wants to say; and if it is clear that this is totally antithetical to the director's concerns, then maybe someone else should be directing the piece, or the director should choose something more congenial to his or her tastes and opinions to direct.