Anna Burnside reviews an impressive production with ‘visual fireworks’.
As the overture plays, Eurydice twists and swirls, suspended on a loop above the stage. Even at this moment, when all the focus is usually on the music, there are visual fireworks going off before our eyes.
So, the tone is set for Opera Queensland’s production of Gluck’s masterwork, made in collaboration with Melbourne circus troupe Circa. This normally static piece is revolutionised by performers who walk the cigarette paper between acrobatics and dance, with gasp-inducing moves filling the huge stage of the Playhouse.
Countertenor Iestyn Davies is an outstanding Orpheus, his voice embodying grief and torture. But it’s hard to give him the concentration required when there’s a human pyramid collapsing into somersaults on his right.
Same problem with Samantha Clarke, doubling as Eurydice and Amor. The two parts are rolled together in a production that is, apart from the tumbling and crawling circus performers, minimal. The set is stripped back, the lighting stark.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Laurence Cummings, do a grand job. When called upon, the chorus of Scottish Opera are efficient Furies and mourners. In the closing sequence, they also look very effective in their monochrome costumes.
But when there is a Eurydice lookalike doing the splits on the shoulders of two phalanxes of Orpheus lookalikes along the back of the stage, their acting skills can take the evening off.
Orpheus and Eurydice is part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival and performs at the Edinburgh Playhouse until August 16, 2025.
Photo by Jess Shurte.
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