For the first time in Malta Teatru Manoel is presenting, as part of the BOV Performing Arts Festival, a new production of 'Orphée et Eurydice' (1859 Berlioz revision) on the 16, 17, 19 and 20 March 2016 at 8pm.

Considered as composer Christoph Willibald Gluck's finest opera, "Orphée et Eurydice" is based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by  Jean Louis Molineit. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing. The piece was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762 in the presence of Empress Maria Theresa. Orphée et Eurydice is the first of Gluck's "reform" operas, in which he attempted to replace the abstruse plots and overly complex music of opera seria with a "noble simplicity" in both the music and the drama. The opera is the most popular of Gluck's works and one of the most influential on subsequent German opera.

This Malta premiere is directed by Denise Mulholland and features mezzo-sopranos Hadar Halevy and Lucia Cirillo sharing the male role of Orphée, Maltese soprano Gillian Zammit plays Eurydice and Francesca Aquilina plays Amour. The chorus is made up of predominantly Maltese singers. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by Philip Walsh and the production also features ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble with choreography by Mavin Khoo.

This new production will be re-imagined in the Victorian era and promises to be both moving and visually striking. Artistic Director, Kenneth Zammit Tabona states, "The concept of bringing the dead back to life is one that has haunted mankind since prehistory. The mythological story of the disconsolate Orpheus bringing his beloved Eurydice back to life has inspired artists, poets and composers to further immortalise it. There are operas by Vinci, Rossi, Monteverdi and even Offenbach and many more but none of them have the innate pathos of Gluck's delicate interpretation. Excerpts like The Dance of the Blessed Spirits and Que fais-Je sans Eurydice? have long become standard popular fare and it is this familiarity with the opera that inspired us at the Theatre to produce our own interpretation of this glorious   Transitional opera on a stage that is eminently suitable to it. I can assure you that the production, in the hands of Denise Mulholland with stage design by Pierre Portelli and costumes by Luke Azzopardi, will leave you mesmerized, charmed and intrigued."

The opera will be sung in French with English surtitles and starts at 8pm. Ticket holders can attend a pre-opera talk at 7.15pm. Performances are on Wednesday 16, Thursday 17, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 March 2016. Tickets can be purchased from www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, by email to [email protected] or tel 2124 6389.