Operation Orfeo is a conceptual opera in three movements with music by Bo Holten

Bo Holten

Bo Holten is a Danish composer and conductor.He has been the principal conductor for the vocal ensembles Ars Nova and Musica Ficta , as well as guest-conductor for the BBC Singers...

, based on the legend of Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...

 and Eurydice

Eurydice

Eurydice in Greek mythology, was an oak nymph or one of the daughters of Apollo . She was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, a satyr saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a venomous snake,...

. The libretto is written by Ib Michael

Ib Michael

Ib Michael is a Danish novelist and poet. His writing style has been described as magic realism. He attended the University of Copenhagen, where he studied Central American and Indian Language and Culture....

 and the concept is created by Kirsten Dehlholm of Hotel Pro Forma. It was premiered in 1993.

The opera is described as a visual opera. A "reconceptualisation of the opera genre. Causal and dramaturgic sequence in libretto and music is replaced by a series of tableaux and compositions informed by purely visual and auditive principles rather than by dramatic modes of narration".

External links

• Video with excerpts of Operation Orfeo
• Otherworldly light - article about the opera's light design