Orpheus in der Unterwelt

“Orpheus in der Unterwelt” (Orphée aux Enfers), Offenbach’s satirical answer to

Gluck’s “Orfeo”, was premiered in Paris 1858 and portrays society as amoral, the upper class as lax and indifferent to all and public opinion in charge of both.

In the early 1980s legendary director Götz Friedrich created his own contemporary version of the operetta at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in German, filled with allusions to the contemporary cultural scene and society in general. Starring a large cast of renowned artists – singers and actors – Orpheus’ odyssey to the Olympic Gods and to the Underworld, in order to save his wife, receives a new face – away from Paris in the 19th century and to bourgeois West-Berlin. The performance stars Julia Migenes Johnson, Donald Grobe, Astrid Varnay and George Shirley, to name but a few. Jesús López Cobos has the musical direction in this production.

Amor, vida de mi vida – The Zarzuela Concert

A typically Spanish musical genre, the zarzuela is a Spanish-language opera with spoken dialogues and filled with pleasant-sounding, often folkloric tunes cast in arias, duets, four-part choruses and dances. While zarzuelas never really made it into the repertoires of theaters outside the Spanish-speaking countries, the many passionate, fiery, or lyrical vocal pieces have continued to thrive in concerts and recitals all over the world. One of the most renowned and ardent supporters of zarzuela melodies is Plácido Domingo, who is featured here in a concert given at the 2007 Salzburg Festival. Belying his 66 years, the world-famous tenor sings these rousing, seductive melodies with the beguiling sweetness of a much younger man. Delicately painted character studies enhanced with occasional harmonic slides, sighing motifs and castanet laughter – Domingo transports the enraptured listener to the calles and plazas of Madrid and Seville.