Cast
John Neumeier — Choreographer
Dmitry Korchak — Orpheus
Andriana Chuchman — Eurydice
Lauren Snouffer — Amour
The Joffrey Ballet
Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra
Harry Bicket — Conductor
Program notes
At the request of Marie Antoinette, Gluck adapted his 1762 opera Orfeo ed Euridice for a series of performances in Paris, expanding the work with additional arias and ballet sequences. It is this 1774 French version, Orphée et Eurydice, to which legendary choreographer John Neumeier brings his vision. Keeping with the composer’s desire to bring together various art forms, Neumeier’s staging transposes Greek myth into the realm of dance: tenor Dmitry Korchak’s Orpheus plays choreographer to dancer Eurydice (soprano Andriana Chuchman). The choir’s bitter lament, and Orpheus’s despair at Eurydice’s death, give way to the chaotic Dance of the Furies in the underworld, where Orpheus attempts to rejoin his beloved.
