Orpheus fetches Eurydice from the underworld (Kärntnertortheater – design for a theatre curtain)

For centuries, the Orpheus myth has provided inspiration for artists and composers. Over the past century, the programme of the Salzburg Festival has included Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), L’anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Orphée aux enfers by Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), Orpheus und Euridike by Ernst Krenek (1900–1991) – and of course L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), which was first performed in Mantua on 24 February 1607 with the libretto by Alessandro Striggio the Younger (1573–1630), after Ovid’s version of the myth in his Metamorphoses (book X, 1–105).
A prologue and five acts relate the tragic story of Orfeo, whose bride Euridice is killed by a snake-bite. Orfeo’s music appeases Caronte [Gr. Charon] and Proserpina [Gr. Persephone], who allow him to lead Euridice back to the living world, on condition that she walks behind him and that he does not turn to look at her on the way. He fails, and returns alone, inconsolable, until his father Apollo ascends with him to heaven.
In 1993, Herbert Wernicke made his Salzburg début as director and set-designer for a performance of L’Orfeo in the inner courtyard of the Residenz. Due to rain, the première, conducted by René Jacobs (b.1946), was held as a concert performance in the Large Hall of the Mozarteum. The second performance, staged this time, was enthusiastically acclaimed, thanks to Wernicke’s transference of the material into the present time. Orfeo strides along the path leading up from the Underworld. As light shows the threshold to the outside world, they have almost reached their goal – but just at that moment, Apollo witnesses Orfeo’s lack of faith.
Far more dramatic is the striking curtain design Orpheus fetches Eurydice from the Underworld by Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751–1818) for the Kärntnertor Theatre in Vienna. The lyre in Orpheus’ hands and the blissfully slumbering three-headed Cerberus are reminders of how the desperate lover managed to gain access to the Underworld. His music lulled the hound of Hades to sleep, and softened the hearts of Persephone and Pluto. As in the Salzburg Festival production, light falls diagonally from top left to bottom right, from the outside world to the Underworld, signifying proximity to the threshold, to a happy outcome within reach. In the 1993 production, Eurydice stretches out her arm towards Orfeo, who steadfastly keeps his back turned. In the painting, however, still striving towards his goal, he turns his head – allowing one final glance into the eyes of his beloved, who can no longer reach him. Four brawny fiends drag her back into the bowels of the Underworld. Her pallid complexion will never again glow with health; like her garments, it belongs in the realm of shadows.

Translated catalogue text from:
Ducke Astrid: Katalog. In: Astrid Ducke: Der Kuss der Musen. Festspiele göttlicher Inspiration. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2020, S. 25-89, Heinrich Friedrich Füger, Orpheus holt Eurydike aus der Unterwelt, S. 39, Abb. 32, S. 38

Translation: Gail Schamberger MA, Salzburg