Orpheus Remixed: A Love Song Through the Ages

This fall, Robert Carsen’s internationally acclaimed production of Orfeo ed Euridice returns to our stage, once again breathing fresh life into the tale of an unforgettable journey (quite literally) to hell and back. 

Few myths have resonated across centuries quite like the story of Orpheus—the legendary Thracian musician and poet whose music could charm all living things, even stones, and who dared to descend into the Underworld to rescue his beloved wife, Euridice. Straddling the boundary between myth and memory, his story has been reimagined across art forms throughout the centuries—from classical opera and romantic poetry to modern film, television, and dance—revealing why this haunting narrative of love, loss, and the power of music continues to captivate us today.

The late Middle English poem Sir Orfeo, from the 13th or 14th century, survived in oral traditions until the 20th century—when The Lord of the Rings creator J. R. R. Tolkien published his 1944 translation.

Classical musical interpretations of the Orpheus story over the centuries have included Handel’s L’anima del filosofo (1791), Liszt’s Orpheus (1854), Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers (1858), Stravinsky’s Orpheus (1948), and Philip Glass’s chamber opera Orphée (1993).

The 1959 film Black Orpheus set the legend in a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval, winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards the following year. Its soundtrack became widely popular in the 1960s and later helped inspire Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire’s 2013 Reflektor album.

Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 play, Eurydice, retells the story from the perspective of Orpheus’ wife. The play was adapted as an opera in 2020, premiering at The Met in 2021.

The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hadestown (2006) sets the story in a post-apocalyptic industrial world, where two love stories—those of Orpheus and Euridice, and Hades and Persephone—intersect against a backdrop of tested faith, climate crisis, and personal sacrifice.

A new ballet, Orpheus Alive, premiered at the National Ballet of Canada in 2019, recasting Orpheus as a woman and Euridice as a man.

On television, the myth has featured on Netflix’s 2022 fantasy drama series The Sandman (starring Ruairi O’Connor as Orpheus) and the 2024 series KAOS, starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus and featuring Killian Scott as Orpheus

Robert Carsen’s internationally acclaimed production of Orfeo ed Euridice premiered at the Canadian Opera Company in 2011. A co-production with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, the modernized staging was hailed by The Globe and Mail as “a fascinating, unmissable show”—and endures today as a powerful reminder of music’s transcendent power.