ORPHÉE AUX ENFERS

Darrie Kosky, former artistic director of the Komische Oper Berlin and

one of the most successful opera makers of the time, has made a furious return to the Salzburg Festival in 2019 with Orphée aux enfers, the prototype of the "Offenbachiade", i.e. the original operetta par excellence. The "foolhardy parody of myths," once castigated by Émile Zola as a "fire of irreverence," promises fun all along the line. For Eurydice, the central character, hates the music personified by her husband. And Orpheus himself is no more than a bland little music teacher from Thebes; Aristaeus, the divine seducer, is an acting honey merchant, and Jupiter, the "father of the gods," is a horny goat and incessantly on the prowl. Offenbach's biting mockery of bourgeois ideals and the institution of marriage is brilliantly brought into focus.