Edinburgh International Festival 2025
Orpheus and Eurydice
Opera Australia
Genre: Opera and Operatic Theatre
Venue: Edinburgh Playhouse
Festival: Edinburgh International Festival
Low Down
Orpheus and Eurydice is a daring and exciting retelling of the classic Greek myth through haunting melodies, contemporary dance, and death-defying circus acts.
Review
Orpheus and Eurydice is an ancient story. A Greek tragedy we’ve seen retold hundreds of times, with a specific increase in recent years. On Broadway, Hadestown brought in numerous Tony Awards, and Netflix gave us Kaos, a high-budget series with immense star power. In this crowded field, how do you make this story stand out? Opera Australia came up with an answer — circus.
This is the first Opera I’ve ever known to be a collaboration with a circus troupe, in this case, Circa, a Brisbane-based company. Barring a few characters here and there, the opera only has our leading couple telling the story. We watch as Orpheus travels to the underworld in an attempt to retrieve Euridice. He overcomes the fates, Cerberus, and the River Styx, but ultimately falls for Hades’ trick. The myth is not the simplest, given its travel between the world of the living and the world of the dead, but clever staging, design, and use of supertitles allows the audience to follow the story easily, something opera is not always known for.
Although far from static, Iestyn Davies and Samantha Clarke do not participate in the human-stacking backflips. To give the illusion of their involvement, the creative team deployed a herd of mirror Opheuses and Euridices to perform alongside the British countertenor and Australian soprano. This side-by-side technique is what transformed the production from a standard opera into a spectacle. It became a piece about physicality, be it in the form of dance, acrobatics, physical feats, or anything else. It felt a bit like an epic ballet, if you replaced the ballerinas with the Ringling Brothers.
Instead of a written translation in the programme or subtitles outwith the stage, the show opted to use the back wall to live-translate the piece. By integrating the language into the set, it was far easier to watch and read simultaneously. Further, there was specificity in the font choice, speed of the language, and transition effects, which allowed for seamless integration into the story overall.
I realize this all sounds a bit chaotic, but director Yaron Lifschitz presented a beautifully cohesive production that lent new life to an ancient story. The show was rife with originality, and, if audience gasps are any indication, full of spectacular acrobatic moments. If you’re a fan of opera, this is a unique chance to see something different. If you’re not a fan of opera, this could be the production that changes your mind.
