World Premiere: October 21, 1858
Most Recent HSO Performance: HSO Premiere
Instrumentation: 2 flutes with 2nd doubling piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, triangle
Duration: 10’

Overture to Orpheus in the
Underworld (1858)

Composed in 1858.
Premiered on October 21, 1858 in Paris.

In 1855, Jacques Offenbach opened a little theater in the Champs-Elysées for the presentation of one-act musical farces using a small orchestra and a handful of singers. He managed to keep the venture afloat, but by 1858 he had amassed enough debts to put the future of the operation in doubt. To raise the money needed to pay his bills, he created a riotous musical satire based on the exploits of the ancient gods, notably those told in the legend of Orpheus and Euridice — Orpheus in the Underworld. The work, the first in which his famous Can-Can melody appears, did not have much success until the review of critic Jules Janin appeared. When Janin described Orpheus as “a profanation of holy and glorious antiquity in a spirit of irreverence that bordered on blasphemy,” the Parisians rushed to see for themselves what outrages Offenbach had committed. The highly profitable run ended after 227 consecutive performances only when the cast pleaded exhaustion. 

Since Offenbach’s instrumental resources at the Champs Elysées theater were so limited, the original overtures for his productions there were little more than short preludes. For later productions with full orchestra, new overtures were devised by other hands utilizing Offenbach’s melodies. (This practice continues on Broadway, where the overture is usually the work of the arranger/orchestrator rather than that of the show’s composer.) The present Orpheus in the Underworld Overture was written by Carl Binder for the Viennese premiere.

©2023 Dr. Richard E. Rodda