Orphée aux enfers

About the show

Orphée, a rustic violin teacher, and his wife Eurydice dislike one another. Eurydice loves their neighbour Aristée, who is actually Pluton, god of the Underworld; Orphée and Pluton plot her death, and Pluton takes her below. Public Opinion forces Orphée to attempt a rescue. On Olympus, the gods revolt against Jupiter, who then descends to the Underworld and falls for Eurydice. At a celebration in Hades, Jupiter tries to smuggle her out. Orphée is told not to look back, but Jupiter’s thunderbolt makes him turn; Eurydice disappears, and the gods assign her to Bacchus. The 1874 revision expands the work to four acts and adds ballet, characters, and musical numbers without changing the main narrative.