‘Orpheus’

The love story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Ovid’s Metamorphoses provided the material for compositions by Monteverdi, Rossi, Gluck, Offenbach and others.
Georg Philipp Telemann’s Orpheus takes an original and sometimes comical approach to two separate worlds, that of the jealous Queen Orasia, who is in love with Orpheus, and that of Pluto, who reigns in the underworld.
Curious to know who gains the upper hand in this thrilling conflict packed with intrigue and plot twists? We can already reveal that Orasia’s plan to win Orpheus by murdering Eurydice does not work out: Orpheus rejects her advances and when she kills him too, she unites the two lovers eternally in a realm where she has no power.
Should she now take her own life in order to renew her bid for Orpheus’ love in the underworld?Telemann’s narrative focuses on the love triangle in which the widowed Queen Orasia becomes the driving force behind the dramatic action.
This concentrated, dynamic and inventive interpretation of the Orpheus myth is being performed for a Belgian audience for the first time: the score was only rediscovered in 1978; now, 250 years after Telemann’s death, new life is being breathed into the work.
It is being directed by Guy Joosten, artistic director of the IOA, and the designer is Roel van Berckelaer. The Apotheosis ensemble is conducted by Korneel Bernolet, who was proclaimed Musician of the Year by the Belgian music press in 2014.