Orpheus & Eurydice – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Music: Christoph Willibald Gluck with additional music by Leo Grant

Words:  Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, translated by George Robarts

Director: Jenny Ogilvie

Conductor: Iwan Davies

One of the great tragic love stories from Greek mythology is the tale of the musician Orpheus and his wife Eurydice. When she dies very young, he is utterly bereft and his heartbreaking music is heard by the Gods who take pity on him and give him the chance to bring her back to life. He jumps at it. But to do so, he has to travel to the underworld to lead her out without turning back to look at her, until they are both in the land of the living. All goes well until, at the very moment that she is to enter the land of the living, his resolve fails him and he turns to look at her. She is lost. But, moved again by Orpheus’ dejection, the Gods relent and restore her to him.

This classic story of love, dedication, patience and sacrifice has been the inspiration for literally hundreds of books, poems, plays, films, music and opera.

English Touring Opera have chosen to ‘reimagine’ Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice (first performed in 1762) with a new English translation and new arrangements of the music for a reduced touring ensemble together with electronic sounds by Leo Grant.

The music is without doubt the highlight of the evening. The two stand out pieces – What is Life for me without thee, sung plaintively by William Morgan as Orpheus, sitting on a stool at the front of the stage in a single spotlight is wonderful, demonstrating perfectly that ‘less is more’ – glorious music, beautifully sung, emotionally real – is all we need for a spinetingling theatrical moment. The orchestral piece – The Dance of the blessed spirits – played after the interval is also delicious. 

Galina Averina as Eurydice has a lovely, sweet voice and the ensemble succeed in creating a range of powerful, menacing and peaceful sounds during their scenes. The fifteen piece live orchestra are a treat.

The Directors have chosen to set the piece in a modern day office, with a central open-space, two box rooms and a toilet. The colour palate of everything (walls, office furniture, costumes) is muted – greys, beiges and creams. The opening tableau of a typical office environment – water cooler, desks facing one another with computers and in-trays and an office canteen behind with bored workers going about their monotonous business – is certainly arresting. All the more so when you realise that the tinny music we hear (like lift music or answerphone ‘on-hold’ music) is What is Life for me without thee. We then realise that, just as the musical refrain is on-repeat, so are the movements of the actors – constantly repeating with the music.

That’s an interesting introduction to the piece, and we learn from the Programme notes that this theme of repetition is felt to be important for this re-imagining. We hear it in the music and we also see it in the dance pieces, notably where a couple repeatedly hug one another only for one to escape from the embrace and then return moments later. The idea is that, when we face moments of difficulty, we are constantly re-running it in our minds in order to find resolution.

That first, impressive tableau aside, the structure of the office setting unfortunately constricts both the movement and dramatic possibilities of the performers throughout the rest of the piece. For example, the ensemble squashing between tables and chairs as they attempt to support or challenge Orpheus, culminating in him lodged under an office desk at one point, trying to sing. It also clashes with so many of the references to leafy glades, pastoral scenes and birdsong, which couldn’t be further than the setting we see.

The structure of the office setting (without the desks and chairs) then becomes the Underworld, which again constricts the performers and is a distraction – and obstruction – for the audience. The constant movement from one room into another by the ensemble, key-stone-cop like, often siting important scenes in a box room to one side of the stage, is a pity. Eurydice’s first Aria is performed from one of the box rooms, behind a vertical blind, almost completely obscuring her, which is terribly frustrating.

The Directors have also chosen to use large video projections of the performers, live, from offstage. This is quite unsettling (all the more so when a stage hand unknowingly remains in shot!) and confusing.

The performers all rise to the occasion and provide an aurally enjoyable evening, despite the constraints provided by the set and some of the artistic choices made.

Runs on tour with two other operas until 28 November