Orfeo Remote, Episode 1: A Hippie Wedding (blue cast)
January 15, 2021
In the midst of a pandemic, a young musician finds herself unemployed and isolated at home. As she reads the headlines about performance spaces closing, she is suddenly struck with inspiration, reaching out to friends and colleagues to help her retell the story of Orfeo. The musician herself takes on the role of La Musica, an embodiment of the spirit of music.
As the story begins, a joyful hippie commune is celebrating the marriage of musician and poet Orfeo to his love Euridice. Euridice’s pledge of love has brought Orfeo out of a long depression, and the couple’s happiness is felt by all in attendance.
About Orfeo Remote
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, based upon the story of the singer Orpheus’s journey to the underworld to rescue his love Eurydice, is often considered the first great opera. Orfeo remote presents it in the form of an opera mini-series: During the challenging times of a pandemic, a young, unemployed musician—embodied in the character La Musica—takes initiative, reaching out to friends and colleagues. They retell Orfeo’s story in the setting of 1960s America, juxtaposing the hippie movement’s ideals of free love and connection with the current reality of pandemic-induced isolation.
This opera mini-series was produced entirely remotely by Northwestern Opera Theater.