Orpheus In The Underworld

19th-century France

• Since 1789 and the start of the

French Revolution France had

been in flux.

• In 1851 Louis-Napoleon

Bonaparte, President of the

Republic, staged a coup.

• Dissolved National Assembly and

held a referendum establishing

himself as Emperor.

• “We shall rule this country with a

purse in one hand a whip in the

other…” (Duke of Persigny)

Second Empire (1852-1870)

• Napoleon III’s Second Empire

gave France respite from war at

home, and was a period (at least

seemingly) of peace and

prosperity.

• Paris redesigned by Baron

Haussmann – a symbol for a new

France.

• Censorship and increased police

powers silenced opposition and

doubt. France knew only what

Napoleon III showed them.

• Napoleon established his Paris

court as centre of social/cultural

life, offering glittering

distractions & rewards to

courtiers.

“Operetta! Flowing champagne, ceaseless waltzing, risqué couplets…uniforms and

glittering ballgowns, romancing and dancing! Gaiety and lightheartedness,

sentiment and Schmalz…”(Richard Traubner, 1983)

Orpheus in the Underworld

• Offenbach was the “Mozart of the

Champs-Elysees”.

• 21 October, 1858, Orpheus in the

Underworld premiered at

Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens –

the first true “opera bouffe” in

Paris.

• The opera takes a new approach

to the classic myth of Orpheus &

Euridice.

• The reaction was extreme….

“They have killed off respect!”

“Classical Olympia has been thrown into disarray, and the authors have

demolished the old schoolroom material of heroics and tragedy”

“A profanation”

“I shall never forget the dazzling evening Orphee aux Enfers enabled me to spend at the theatre…”

(Napoleon III, 1860)