Orpheus and Eurydice

The myth of the musician Orpheus—who travels to the underworld to retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice—probes the deepest questions of desire, grief, and the power (and limits) of art.

Gluck turned to this legend as the basis for a work as they were developing their ideas for a new kind of opera. Disillusioned with the inflexible forms of the genre as they existed at the time, the composer sought to reform the operatic stage with a visionary and seamless union of music, poetry, and dance.