"She's behind you..."
Orfeo ed Euridice, or Orphée et Eurydice in French, is a famous opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, with libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. Originally written for the German and Italian stage, it had French sensibilities and was wildly popular there, ushering in a new age of serious operas.
An operatic retelling of the Classical Mythology myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, it's notable for taking several liberties with the source material. While the basic plot—Orpheus descending to the Underworld to rescue Eurydice, who has died from a snakebite—is the same, many details are different. Hades and Persephone, the rulers of the Underworld, don't feature in the story, Cupid is a major character, Orpheus's conditions for leading Eurydice out are crueler than the usual, and surprisingly, the old story may have a happy ending yet.
This opera got a direct parody in Jacques Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, which is much, much sillier.
This opera contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: The version filmed at Český Krumlov Castle has Eurydice fall, hit her head, and die when Orpheus shoves her during an argument.
- Adaptation Expansion: The 1774 version, rewritten for the French stage, included extra songs and the famous Dance of the Spirits ballet sequence in Elysium.
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: In this version, after Orpheus turns around and loses Eurydice again, Cupid brings her back to life as a reward for their undying love.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The conditions for leading Eurydice out are even worse than the norm, as not only can Orpheus not turn to look at Eurydice, he can't speak to her to tell her why. Eurydice thinks he no longer loves her, begs him to look at her, and threatens to stay behind in death if he won't explain himself. Due to all this, Orpheus ultimately gives in and turns around.
- Adaptational Secrecy Downgrade: Inverted. In Classical Mythology, as Orpheus and Eurydice leave the Underworld, Eurydice knows that Orpheus is forbidden to look at her until they reach the world of the living. But in Gluck's opera, she doesn't know, and Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her. Therefore, her pleading for him to look at her becomes the reason for his fatal backward glance.
- Adapted Out: Unusually for a retelling of the Orpheus myth, Hades and Persephone don't feature at all, with Cupid relating the conditions to Orpheus before the journey begins and Orpheus encountering the Furies and Cerberus in the Underworld.
- All Just a Dream: Some productions, like the New Zealand (m)Orpheus production, have the show take place inside Orpheus's mind as a dream he's having that gives him hope to move on.
- Canon Foreigner: While Cupid is an established Greco-Roman God, he doesn't normally feature in the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.
- Crosscast Role: Cupid, a male god in mythology, is traditionally sung soprano by women. Orpheus himself tends to be portrayed this way as well, since the role was written for a castrato contralto: apart from productions that use Gluck's later revised score for Paris that transposes the role for a tenor, nowadays he tends to be sung either by a female mezzo soprano or by a countertenor.
- Dead to Begin With: The opera starts with Orpheus mourning Eurydice, who's already died; some versions have the Overture depicting her happy dancing and subsequent death.
- Death by Falling Over: Ondrej Havelka's 2014 film of the opera implies that this was the cause of Eurydice's death rather than the snakebite from the original myth. The Furies torture Orpheus with a flashback vision, showing that he neglected Eurydice in favor of his music, which finally led to a quarrel in which she tried to wrest his lyre out of his hands: he pushed her away, and she fell and fatally struck her head.
- Dies Differently In The Adaptation: Since this opera has Eurydice Dead to Begin With and never mentions her cause of death, some productions that do add a pantomime showing her death give it a different cause than the snakebite from the myth. For example, some productions with a Setting Update have her die in a car accident, and the version filmed at Český Krumlov Castle has her fall and hit her head when Orpheus shoves her during an argument.
- Don't Look Back: Not only can Orpheus not look back as in the myth, he can't speak to Eurydice to tell her why, which brings much anguish to them both until he eventually turns around.
- Downer Beginning: The opera starts with Orpheus and the chorus in extreme grief over Eurydice's recent death.
- Five Stages of Grief: At the beginning, Orpheus is in denial, continuously calling for the dead Eurydice and begging her to come back to him. Then he switches to anger at the gods, resolving to defy them by journeying to the underworld and bringing Eurydice back. His journey through the underworld embodies bargaining, as he literally bargains with the gods, furies and spirits, and as he struggles to keep his end of the bargain by not looking back at Eurydice. When he does look back and loses her again, he succumbs to depression. He never quite reaches acceptance, because the opera changes the ending of the myth and has the gods restore Eurydice to him anyway, though some modern productions have had her stay dead and turned the ending into a symbol of acceptance, with Orpheus realizing his wife will always live on in his memory.
- Hell of a Heaven: Orpheus is dazzled by the beauty of Elysium and its inhabitants, but finds the paradise empty without Eurydice there.
- Interrupted Suicide: Orpheus is prepared to end it all after losing Eurydice again, but Cupid shows mercy, brings Eurydice back, and stops him.
- Lost in Imitation: Not the opera itself, but many classical paintings featuring Orpheus and Eurydice are based on this opera rather than the original myth, with notable features being a gentle trek through Elysium in the forest, or showing Eurydice begging Orpheus to look at her as he tries to resist.
- Married to the Job: The Český Krumlov Castle version has a flashback vision show that Orpheus neglected Eurydice in favor of his music, which finally led to a quarrel in which she tried to wrest his lyre out of his hands.
- Minimalist Cast: Only three major characters—Orpheus, Eurydice, and Cupid—feature, with the chorus taking multiple roles.
- Mood Whiplash: Cupid interrupts Orpheus's sorrow in the first and last acts with lighthearted exclamations, and his songs are much lighter than what came before.
- The Power of Love: As a reward for their undying love, Cupid brings Eurydice back to life and the couple departs happily, singing of how love can conquer all.
- Rescued from the Underworld: The story is an operatic retelling of the Orpheus myth, with Orpheus getting past the Furies and Cerberus before leading Eurydice out of Elysium. Unlike most versions of the myth, after Orpheus turns around, Cupid brings Eurydice back to life and they depart happily.
- Setting Update: Some productions are set in modern or semi-modern times, often replacing Orpheus's lyre with a guitar and mixing clothing from different eras.
- Show Within a Show: The Český Krumlov Castle version of the opera has Orpheus's actor seeing and participating in the show to drown his sorrows over losing Eurydice, and eventually realizing the happy ending is all an illusion to keep him from dealing with grief.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The opera starts with Orpheus and the chorus mourning Eurydice at her tomb, eventually leading him to go to the Underworld to get her back.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: With the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice being a Foregone Conclusion in tragedy and Bugs Bunny famously noting that operas don't tend to have happy endings, it comes as a surprise that after Orpheus turns around and dooms Eurydice, Cupid brings her back to life in honor of their undying love.
- Truer to the Text: Some versions stick closer to the myth's original ending by cutting the final scene out, having Orpheus successfully kill himself, or making Cupid a fantasy, among other variations.
