The ancient Greek myth of Orpheus is a story of love, loss and remembrance.
In the original tale, the famous bard of the same name braves the underworld to recover his lost wife Eurydice, using the power of his music to convince Hades and Persephone to release her from death.
They agree, but on one condition; he must walk in front of her and not look back until they both return to the living world.
In his eagerness, Orpheus fails to hold to that restriction and Eurydice is lost forever.
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s influential opera Orpheus and Eurydice, which Lyster Opera brings to Geelong this February, is a retelling of that well-known myth.
But, as the proliferation of contemporary cinematic remakes demonstrates, sometimes the artist reinterpreting the original story can’t help but editorialise.
“The obvious takeaway from the original story is that the dead are always with us, but we don’t look back, we look forward,” Lyster founder and opera historian Jamie Moffat said.
“They’re always with us, but they’re behind us. But in Gluck’s version, when Orpheus looks back at Eurydice and she falls down dead, he sings his very famous, very beautiful lament; it’s one of the most beautiful things ever written.
“Then, the goddess of love pops up and says, no, only kidding, and brings Eurydice back to life. It’s just a different take, and the moral of the story becomes ‘love triumphs over everything’.”
It’s a work that Moffat has long wanted to produce; Orpheus and Eurydice was the first opera he had ever heard.
“I just fell in love with this one; it is so lyrical, so beautiful, so moving,” he said.
“It’s a fiendishly difficult score, it really is a very hard one to sing. It’s all about contrast…in the space of an hour and three quarters, (Gluck) runs the entire gamut, from joyous to terrifying, and of course, it ends up on this very upbeat note.”
Tenor Paul Biencourt, who has performed with Melbourne Opera, Victorian Opera and Opera Australia, leads the cast in the role of Orpheus, with Laura Slavin as Eurydice and Helen Koehne as Amour.
Lyster Opera’s Orpheus and Eurydice is at the Courthouse Theatre on 14 February. Visit lysteropera.com.au or call 0410 890 388 for tickets.
