Orfeo at the Roundhouse

Orfeo: Royal Opera at the Roundhouse

There are multiple layers in this production.  Underneath it all lies the Greek myth of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice, the best known version of which is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Latin.  She dies, Orpheus the mythical singer-songwriter goes down to the underworld to ask for her back, Pluto agrees but sets a condition that Orpheus must not look back at her as they emerge from Hades, he does, she dies again, Orpheus meets a strange end.  Next layer is the renaissance opera form invented by Monteverdi in Italy in 1607; then the recreation by a modern opera company in an English translation and finally the relocation of the Royal Opera from its home in Covent Garden to the more hip area of Camden.  Add to these diverse elements a local community dance group of young people performing acrobatics and dance sequences (they become the gates of hell at one point and the river Styx at another), a band of musicians playing authentic instruments of the period of Monteverdi, and an interpretation by the director and designer which places everything into a Christian context where Orfeo becomes a Christ-like figure and the whole drama is played out apparently in a Christian court with institutionalised figures (orphans, prisoners?) taking on the dramatic roles.  In the original country setting of acts 1 and 2 the pastori  (shepherds) become pastors or Catholic priests sinisterly dressed in black soutanes.  This is an attempt at outreach by the Royal Opera which is trying to bring opera to a new audience, and the night I attended this seemed to be successful.  A mixed audience in the sold-out former engine turning shed in Chalk Farm, representative of the whole of London, was there with only a few regular Covent Garden patrons looking confused.  Peeling back these layers you eventually come down to the original Greek myth.  Perhaps opera as a new genre was inspired by Greek tragedy and the new enthusiasm for Greek and Latin culture at the time.  While this production moves far from a traditional view of Classical culture it is still nonetheless there and this shows perhaps the fundamental position of the classical world in western culture, even in such a modern contemporary take on it as this.