\u201cgalop infernal\u201d<\/a> can-can music has become one of the most recognizable short orchestra pieces in operatic history.<\/p>\nOffenbach\u2019s opera was inspired by the ancient story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Heartbroken over the death of his beloved wife, Eurydice, the musician Orpheus descends into the underworld to bring her back. After charming Hades with his music, he is granted permission to return Eurydice to the land of the living with the agreement that she must follow him out and he\u2019s forbidden to look back at her. But when Orpheus loses faith and turns back to make sure she\u2019s still following him, she is lost forever.<\/p>\n
In \u201cOrpheus in the Underworld,\u201d with score by Offenbach and libretto by Hector Cr\u00e9mieux and Ludovic Hal\u00e9vy, Orpheus and Eurydice are no longer in love and the Greek gods are fixated on romance, pranks and partying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really amazing representation of what French theater and opera was like in that time period and making fun of the French aristocrats,\u201d Alcorn said. \u201cThe original libretto really reflects that. It\u2019s a lot more criticism of the gods and how they\u2019re interacting with mortals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcorn said the reason the opera is rarely performed nowadays is because the libretto is \u201ca little spacey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of plot lines get thrown around and almost melodramatic soap opera moments occur,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of adaptations of this work are terrible. The dialogue gets pretty rough. It\u2019s supposed to be high satire but there\u2019s a lot of unfunny parts that have been translated over this show\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make the opera more easily digestible for modern audiences, Alcorn has worked extensively with various versions of the libretto. He has trimmed the story down to under two hours and clarified the language and stories.<\/p>\n
To bring contemporary context to the story, Alcorn is setting the opera in 1970s America.<\/p>\n
During that decade, women were coming into their own in the workplace and at home, which suits the idea of Eurydice deciding for herself how she wants to live and who she wants to love. Another reason he chose the \u201970s was because it was a time of conflict between the younger generation wanting free expression and older Americans becoming more conservative.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the 1970s is one of those fun periods of time with a lot of dramatic color and music and also this huge counter-culture flower power movement came into its own. Coupled with the deep conservatism that was coming from the Vietnam War and the resulting conflict in the Middle East that emerged in that time. You have these two really intense perceptions of life. We\u2019re making such amazing social progress, and people are trying to send us back 200 to 300 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tenor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-caughey.jpg\")
Tenor Adam Caughey will play Orpheus in Opera \u00c0 La Carte San Diego\u2019s \u201cOrpheus in the Underworld.\u201d (Adam Caughey)<\/p>\n
The production will feature a cast of 21 local singers, many of them members of the San Diego Opera Chorus. Soprano Katherine Polit stars as Eurydice, tenor Adam Caughey will play Orpheus, tenor Frank Napolitano plays Pluto, baritone Michael O\u2019Halloran plays Jupiter and mezzo-soprano Sarah Nicole Carter will play Public Opinion.<\/p>\n
Bruce Stasyna, San Diego Opera\u2019s resident conductor and chorusmaster, is serving as music director and conductor for \u201cOrpheus.\u201d The show\u2019s musical accompaniment will be a piano and violin. There will also be three to four dancers from Wen Song\u2019s Song in Motion company, performing to choreography by Cassidy Crolley.<\/p>\n
![\"Soprano](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-polit.jpg\")
Soprano Katherine Polit will play Eurydice in Opera \u00c0 La Carte San Diego\u2019s \u201cOrpheus in the Underworld.\u201d (Katherine Polit)<\/p>\n
Alcorn said \u201cOrpheus\u201d will be staged in a church event hall where the audience will be seated on three sides of the performance space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing to know is that because we\u2019ll be so close together, you\u2019ll get to see nuances that I don\u2019t know have been explored before,\u201d Alcorn said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be able to understand and feel this conflicted marriage between the two of them. They may not really love each other in romantic way, but there\u2019s still something there. There\u2019s a reason why they connected. Finding those moments of balance I think are going to be really wonderful for the audience to see up close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opera \u00c0 La Carte presents \u2018Orpheus in the Underworld\u2019<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> Final dress rehearsal at 7 p.m. Sept. 24; regular performances, 7 p.m. Sept. 26; 6:30 p.m. Sept. 28<\/p>\nWhere:<\/strong> St. Peter\u2019s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 1 Parish Lane, Del Mar<\/p>\nTickets:<\/strong> $15 for final dress rehearsal; $45 for regular performances<\/p>\nOnline:<\/strong> ticketleap.events\/events\/operaalacartesandiego<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opera \u00c0 La Carte San Diego, which made its debut in May 2024 with an intimate East Village…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1576,171,1370,3549,3550,7264,1148,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-226387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-classical-music","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-theater","18":"tag-things-to-do","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115203212915960461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Zane](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sut-l-stage-zane-alcorn.jpg\")
Zane Alcorn is the director of Opera \u00c0 La Carte San Diego\u2019s production of \u201cOrpheus in the Underworld.\u201d (Opera \u00c0 La Carte San Diego)<\/p>\n