I’m delighted to announce that I will be singing the role of Euridice in Opera della Luna’s production of Orpheus and the Underworld (Offenbach) in three different venues this summer.
The production will be sung in English with translation by Jeff Clarke who also directs and is a revival of a previous Opera della Luna production.
A Buxton International Festival co-production with Opera della Luna.
‘A profanation of holy and glorious antiquity. A desecration of the gods!’ That’s how one outraged critic greeted the first performance of Orphée aux Enfers in 1858. But Offenbach and his librettists were not so much desecrating ancient Greece, as their own bourgeois society. Its waltzes and marches were played constantly from the Tuileries to the smallest taverns, and the Galop Infernal or can-can became one of the most famous dance tunes ever written. Jeff Clarke’s new translation casts a satirical eye on our own society, in much the same way that Offenbach’s original lampooned Second Empire Paris.
Opera della Luna specialises in the comic opera repertoire and has become one of the country’s most cherished touring companies. Described as ‘fast approaching national treasure status’, it made its BIF debut last year with The Daughter of the Regiment, which played to sold-out houses and received 5-star reviews.
‘I can’t think of any production of Orpheus in the Underworld that I’ve ever enjoyed as much as this rumbustious, unpretentious, and thoroughly jolly version, executed with tremendous verve.’ – Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph.
We open at the Salisbury Festival on the 4th of June. Then it’s on to Buxton International Festival with shows on the 8th, 11th and 17th of July and finally the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on the 22nd and 23rd of July.
We’ll be having lots of fun high kicking in the can-can and hope to see you there!
Daire Halpin - Soprano 