Eurydice (Aucoin)
Eurydice is an opera composed by Matthew Aucoin with a libretto by Sarah Ruhl based on her 2003 play of the same name, a retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. It had its premiere at the Los Angeles Opera on February 1, 2020, with Aucoin conducting. It had its Metropolitan Opera premiere on November 23, 2021.
Eurydice
Composition history[edit]
The work was co-commissioned and co-produced by the Metropolitan Opera, and was mostly written while Aucoin was serving as the Los Angeles Opera's artist in residence. The Los Angeles Times noted that this production, "the world's newest major opera", is on the same subject as the world's oldest surviving opera, Jacopo Peri's Euridice, which premiered 420 years earlier in 1600.[1]
Performance history[edit]
The critical reaction to the opera's Los Angeles premiere was varied. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times said the opera is "ambitious, confident, often impressive, mostly engaging, instrumentally colorful and splendidly singable. At its best, it is gratifying grand opera."[1] Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times suggested that Aucoin may have been too deferential to Ruhl's play, so that "the musical language of Eurydice is at times curiously tame." He added that "the opera's boldest stroke" is the creation of a double for Orpheus, so that the main character is portrayed as an "everyday guy" who has a gift for music, with a godlike dimension signified by his double.[4] Jim Farber wrote in the Orange County Register that the production was "a triumph – musically, visually and vocally."[5] Matthew Richard Martinez, writing for Bachtrack, noted that the creators (composer Aucoin, librettist Ruhl, and director Zimmerman) are all recipients of the MacArthur "Genius" grant and said that "Given the brilliance of the piece's music, its moving and unique take on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, and its deft execution, three 'geniuses' make for one captivating opera."[6]
Eurydice was given its Metropolitan Opera premiere on November 23, 2021. The cast included Erin Morley as Eurydice, Joshua Hopkins as Orpheus, Jakub Józef Orliński as Orpheus's double, Barry Banks as Hades, and Nathan Berg as Eurydice's father; the conductor was the company's music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the stage director was Mary Zimmerman. The performance was broadcast live by the Metropolitan Opera Radio via the Met's Sirius XM channel.[7] Zachary Woolfe, who reviewed the performance for The New York Times, praised Ruhl's libretto, but felt that Aucoin's music and scoring overwhelmed the story. Still, he thought it was a "a clearer, stronger work" than Aucoin's previous opera, Crossing (2015), and noted that "the dancing at Orpheus and Eurydice's wedding, a hint of pop music glimpsed through ominous shadows, is a little jewel."[8] The Met performed the opera a total of seven times that season.[9] The fourth performance, on December 4, was videocast live as part of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series and also broadcast on the Metropolitan Opera Radio network and SiriusXM.[10] An HD video recording of that performance is available for streaming at Met Opera on Demand.[11] The final performance of the opera that season (December 16) was also broadcast on Sirius XM.[12]