Richard Bratby

More misogynistic than the original: ENO’s Orpheus in the Underworld reviewed

Plus: one of the most masterful and affecting vocal performances I've ever heard at the Coliseum – but close your eyes

issue 12 October 2019

It’s Act Three of Emma Rice’s new production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, and Eurydice (Mary Bevan) is trapped in the backroom of a Soho peep show. But that doesn’t really matter because Jupiter (Willard White), a cigar-toking love walrus in a silk bathrobe, has transformed himself into a fly and is about to ravish her, once he’s worked out the practicalities of doing so while three millimetres long.

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