Through a Glass Glimmeringly
We'd love to have seen the four Orpheus operas being presented by Cooperstown, New York's Glimmerglass Opera, but it's not going to happen, alas. However, there are still about four more occasions to catch all four productions—Philip Glass' s Orphée, Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, and Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld—before the end of their summer run, so feel free.
The series' jewel turned out to be Glass's 1993 Orphée, the first of three operas the seventy-year-old minimalist composer based on the films of Jean Cocteau. Anthony Tommasini's New York Times review of the series was mixed overall, but he loved Orphée:
Mr. Glass may follow the film slavishly, but his hypnotically repetitive music has the effect of ritualizing the story, making it mythic. I often find his music formulaic, but not this score. It is run through with honky-tonk, jazzy bits and ancient modal lyricism, percolating with rhythmic riffs that often break into asymmetrical patterns and keep you off guard. The vocal writing is sometimes like pitched speech. But that only enhances the austere ritualism of the music.And blogger Opera Chic had a good time as well:
The strengths and appeal of the production lie in its unsentimental, organic, unforgiving, and edgy direction. The synthesis of Glass's music/libretto and Cocteau's inspired screenplay create a perfect atmosphere of delicious tension, questioning life and death and the afterlife. The characters are haunted by their own doppelgangers, hovering to remind them of their own bad decisions. There was nothing fussy or overworked, and the singing was allowed to weave over Glass's ambient score.