Orpheus in the Underworld

During its premiere stage run in 1858, Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus In The Underworld burst pocket-books and bellies alike. The broadly satirical tone of the work, which pokes fun at Classical mythology, Glucks’s operatic setting of the Orpheus legend, as well as contemporary society, generated ample controversy and self-promotion. The key ingredient of this succes de scandale, however, was a local critic by the name of Jules Janin. Week after week, his Journal des Debats was filled with charges of artistic sacrilege which touched upon every aspect of the production. Offenbach, together with his literary collaborators Hector Cremieux and Ludovic Halevy, patiently waited until Janin turned the spotlight of his attack on the libretto of Orpheus. This happened in due course and the creators delighted in finally being able to play their ace. They had used, in their libretto, text lifted verbatim from one of Janin’s own columns from earlier that year. Cremieux was quick to share this titbit with Parisian society in the pages of Figaro.The mouthpiece of piety had served his purpose and, not surprisingly, conceded.

By the end of the Janin scandal, Orpheus was a slick and smoothly- running show. Curiosity seekers encountering the work first-hand discovered the satire to be of a light-hearted nature, and generic as much as it was specific. Many responded to its far-reaching invitation to join in the fun . The Orpheus success was a timely one. Despite the relative popularity of Offenbach’s earlier thirty-three production, the composer had consistently managed to operate his theatre the Bouffes-Parisian in the red. With Orpheus, the box-office receipts were substantial enough that Offenbach’s extravagances no longer jeopardized his personal finances or those of the theatre. Everyone shared in the success. The chorus and orchestra grew, as did the salaries. At the close of its initial two hundred and twenty-eight performance run, the Orpheus project had grown considerably. Furthermore, it had become downright fashionable. Night after night the reveling Gods brought the house down with the infectious rhythms and frenetic pacing of the still famous cancan . A once outmoded dance, Offenbach ‘s cancan became a symbol of flamboyance and vitality, later captured in Toulouse-Lautrec’s Moulin Rouge posters and very much in evidence today on the dance stages of Las Vegas.

The unprecedented recognition and financial security which Orpheus afforded Offenbach even helped to secure him French citizenship. The Emperor Napoleon III commanded and honored a special performance of Orpheus as the feature of a gala event at Paris ‘s Italian Opera in 1860. Performances of Orpheus soon conquered international stages as well, including those of Offenbach ‘s native Germany. After a carefully nurtured early career, Orpheus began to lead a somewhat independent life and Offenbach turned his creative energies to new opera-bouffes, opera comiques, operettas and the like. Many were subtle reworkings of the successful ingredients of Orpheus; satires of other mythological legends and over revered composers. However, in 1874, after premiering no less than fifty more works, Offenbach again focused his attention on Orpheus. What has originally catapulted him into the realm of larger-scale works was further transformed into an operetta on a truly grand scale. Each of the original four scenes became an act in its own right. Contemporary revivals of Orpheus include the concise as well as augmented versions.

Unlike many satirical works, the success of Orpheus has never hinged solely on audiences getting a bunch of “inside jokes”, although they certainly add another layer of merry-making. The young painter Gustav Dore laced the original costumes and set designs with witty allusions to Napoleon III and his court, whose amorous and other intrigues strikingly resembled those of Orpheus’ Gods and were much discussed in the tabloids of the day. Subsequent designers and directors have found ample personalities and activities with which to underscore the work’s ongoing topicality. Even without such pointed references, Orpheus’ Gods embody an abundance of very human frailties and idiosyncrasies which will undoubtedly remain recognizable for audiences yet to come.