Word: offenbach
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...Lowell House Musical Society appears to be doing its part in the current religious revival at Harvard by undertaking a program aimed at the restoration of paganism. After staging an Americanized version of the Trojan War last year, the Society has now turned to Jacques Offenbach's irreverent 19th century reworking of the Orpheus myth. While the moral effect of such an undertaking might be questionable, its entertainment value in the current installment is fairly high. Orpheus in Hades is very nearly an excellent show...
...Offenbach's brand of light opera is ever so much more frothy than its contemporary Anglo-Saxon counterpart, with little of the latter's pointed if slightly aging satire. It consists for the most part of many very agreeable musical pieces linked together by a singularly loose thread of plot. This plot centers less on Orpheus, represented as a violinist with a vast distaste for Eurydice, than on Jupiter's attempts to get her away from the tender mercies of her kidnaper, Pluto, so that he may have her for his own tender mercies. Jupiter's efforts are complicated...
Nevertheless, Offenbach's frequently exhilirating music and the superb performances of Miss Smith and Mr. Scott place the Lowell House show safely among the ranks of successful productions...
...Composer Gerald Cockshott's Apollo and Persephone, Marc Blitzstein's Triple Sec. The troupe scored a critical success in an appearance at Edinburgh last year (TIME, Sept. 10), is currently preparing to open at Manhattan's off-Broadway Phoenix Theatre with the first U.S. performance of Offenbach's 66, a 40-minute spoof of Austrians and lotteries...
...about to go under, after a stay of two months, because of a heavy-handed collaboration in the book department between Voltaire and Lillian Hellman (TIME, Dec. 10), but its witty score remains a triumph ? it is both melodious and satirical in a manner rarely surpassed since Offenbach...