Orpheus in der Unterwelt

In the organizer's words:

Opéra-bouffon in two acts and four pictures by Jacques Offenbach - Mixed Version 1858/1874 - Libretto by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy - Critical Edition Offenbach Edition Jean-Christophe Keck (OEK) - In German text version by Ludwig Kalisch with additions by Frank Harders-Wuthenow.

Orpheus and Eurydice have finally had enough of their marriage. They cheat on each other without restraint, Eurydice not suspecting that her affair Aristeus is Pluto, the god of the underworld. He cunningly initiates the death of Eurydice, who is immediately ready to accompany him into the realm of the dead. Orpheus already thinks himself lucky about this unexpected loss of his wife, when the infamous guardian of law and order appears to him: Public Opinion! She asks Orpheus to go to Olympus in order to reclaim his wife from the supreme god Jupiter himself. Once in Olympus, Jupiter, along with all the gods there, decides to travel to the underworld to get to the bottom of the case. In the process, the ever-lascivious Jupiter secretly sets his sights on conquering the beautiful Eurydice himself. A turbulent feast begins in Pluto's realm, culminating in the famous hell cancan.

In 2022, the world excitedly followed the separation drama between the former dream couple Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. In the end, the whole thing had little to do with a serious legal dispute; rather, the court case mutated more and more into a Hollywood blockbuster - with Depp and Heard in their most convincing roles. After Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Tosca and Die Zauberflöte, house director Nikolaus Habjan now turns to comic opera, transferring Offenbach's masterpiece to our own times with subtle allusions to the recent "movie star rose war."

Cast:

Orpheus Zachary Wilson
Eurydice Rinnat Moriah
Public Opinion Maria Hiefinger
Aristeus/Pluto Fritz Steinbacher
Hans Styx Steffen Schortie Scheumann
Jupiter Morgan Moody
Juno Christine Groeneveld
Venus Hyejun Kwon
Diana Ruth Catherine Peeck
Minerva Subin Park
Mercury MinLee
Cupid Soyoon Lee
Dance Ensemble Janina Clark, Marlou Düster, Elisa Fuganti Pedoni, Nathalie Gehrmann, Helena Sturm, Iván Keim, Evaldo Melo, Christian Meusel
Swing Eva Kwasny

(Hyejun Kwon, Subin Park and Soyoon Lee are members of the Opera Studio NRW)

Opera Choir Theater Dortmund
Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra

Musical direction Motonori Kobayashi, Andrea Alessandrini, Koji Ishizaka
Production Nikolaus Habjan
Stage Heike Vollmer
Costumes Denise Heschl
Choreography Adriana Naldoni
Lighting N.N.
Choral rehearsal Fabio Mancini
Dramaturgy Daniel Andrés Eberhard
Study management Thomas Hannig
Production management Fabian Schäfer
Assistant director Dominik Kastl
Stage design assistance Madeleine Mebs
Costume assistant Nina Albrecht-Paffendorf
Soufflage Adriana Naldoni
Dance Captain Iván Keim
stage management Ulas Nagler, Alexander Becker