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Max Hopp

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Orphée aux enfers -  (Orfeusz w piekle)

Salzburg

Austria

Operetta enthusiast Barrie Kosky has landed a gigantic success with Offenbachs subversive and hilarious reversion of the Orpheus myth at the Salzburg Festival. Kosky created a magically precise and witty staging with numerous extravagant costumes in a glittering opulent scenery and a literally devilish choreography. For the dialogues he has found an impressively ingenious solution as they are not spoken by the singers. Rather they are performed by the brilliant German actor Max Hopp as John Styx who performs a true vocal miracle (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) in a slapstick-like manner. The superb cast impresses with virtuoso singing as well as ravishingly comedic acting, first and foremost the American coloratura soprano Kathryn Lewek as Eurydice with crystal clear coloraturas and sovereign top tones (Salzburger Nachrichten), the Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter as severe LOpinion publique or the Austrian bass baritone Martin Winkler as foolish father of the gods Jupiter. Under the Italian conductor Enrique Mazzolas precise conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker provide an exquisite sparkling orchestral sound (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). A frantic and fabulous show (New York Times)

Haus für Mozart

Orpheus in the underworld.
Opéra-bouffon in two acts and four scenes (1858)

Paris 1858. Offenbach was in financial turmoil with the Bouffes-Parisiens, his small stage near the Champs-Élysées. He loved abundance, like the court of the Second Empire under Napoleon III. exemplified him with his parvenu-like luxury. However, he overstretched himself with the design of his opérette-bouffe Mesdames de la Halle. Now he had to go into hiding to escape from the bailiff. Only a resounding success could save the almost 40-year-old from trouble. An Orpheus libretto by Ludovic Halévy and Hector Crémieux was already available and only needed revision. Set to music by Offenbach, Orphée aux enfers was to become the prototype of the “Offenbachiade”, the ultimate operetta and at the same time a lifeline.
The premiere was still disappointing and the hoped-for triumph did not materialize. It was only when the Parisian critic Pope Jules Janin slammed it a month and a half after the premiere that the turning point came. It sparked a controversy about Offenbach's outrage — "that 'fire of irreverence' (Émile Zola).
But hadn't the pastiche of classical antiquity long since become fashionable? Was that really the cause of the indignation? It was probably less about the gods and demigods of antiquity than about the spectacle of the dictatorship of Napoleon III. and the bourgeois society of the Second Empire "who drank of the water of the Lethe in order not to have to remember their origin". Orphée aux enfers makes fun of "the rattling that is supposed to impress, denounces Potemkin villages" and the "pompousness of the Empire", behind which the urge to "satisfy the senses" (Siegfried Kracauer) can live out.
The pendulum finally swung for Offenbach: the success of his “brazen travesty of myths” (Volker Klotz) increased and after the 80th performance the rush of the audience could hardly be coped with. The series of performances had to be interrupted after the 228th performance because the singers were exhausted.
And a second time Orphée aux enfers became the savior of the theater director in need: after the proclamation of the republic in 1870, the Offenbachiade ran out and its creator had little success with the Théâtre de la Gaîté. Offenbach took up the Orphée again, made four acts and twelve scenes from the two acts and four scenes of the Opéra-bouffon and called his new version an “Opéra-féerie”. He updated the libretto with digs at republican institutions and corrupt courts, but at the same time, in keeping with the taste of the time, he carried us off into a fairytale world, enchanted by the equipment and tricks of the machinists. Financial success came again.

In principle, Barrie Kosky's version for the Salzburg Festival adheres to the form of the two-act opéra bouffon of 1858, although one or two ideas from 1874 will be incorporated.
Eurydice, the central character, hates the music personified by her husband. And Orpheus himself is no more than a small, insipid music teacher from Thebes; Aristaeus, the divine seducer, is an acting honey merchant, and Jupiter, the "father of the gods", a lecherous buck and constantly on the prowl. Offenbach's mockery of bourgeois ideals, the sublimity of music and the institution of marriage means that "public opinion" literally comes to nothing with its preaching of decency. Shrouded in mystery, John Styx tells the story of braided Orpheus and his annoyed Eurydice, of goddesses and gods looking for distraction, bored with everyday life on Olympus. He tells of the revolt in the heavens of the gods, which Jupiter skillfully nips in the bud by promising his entourage amusement. Burning with curiosity about the beautiful kidnapped woman and the competition between Jupiter and Pluto for the favor of Eurydice, the illustrious company embarks on a hellish ride into the underworld, which culminates in what is probably the most famous cancan in music history. And Eurydice? She finally puts a spoke in everyone's wheel...

Orphée aux enfers Offenbach

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