Offenbach: Orphée aux Enfers (DVD) – Kathryn Lewek, Anne Sofie von Otter

Composer: Jacques Offenbach
Artists: Joel Prieto, Kathryn Lewek, Max Hopp, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcel Beekman, Martin Winkler, Wiener Philharmoniker, Vocal Consort Berlin
Conductor: Enrique Mazzola
Director: Barrie Kosky
Format: NTSC
Language: French, German
Subtitles: English, French, German, Korean, Japanese
Number of Discs: 1
Studio: Unitel Edition
DVD Release Date: July 24, 2020
Run Time: 140 minutes

Operetta enthusiast Barrie Kosky has landed a gigantic success with Offenbach’s 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 dialogue, he has found an impressively ingenious solution, as they are not spoken by the singers, but rather 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 L’Opinion Publique or the Austrian bass baritone Martin Winkler as foolish father of the gods Jupiter.

Under Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola’s precise conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker provide an “exquisite sparkling orchestral sound” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

“A frantic and fabulous show.” (New York Times)

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