Chinese artists reconstruct opera L'Orfeo, to stage it this weekend

The main cast rehearses ahead of the opening of L'Orfeo. The opera is scheduled to open in Beijing on Friday evening, Oct 19, 2018.[Photo provided to China Plus]

A new opera based on the Greek romantic tragic tale of L'Orfeo will open in Beijing on Friday evening.

The opera combines baroque, Avant-garde, and art rock with vintage electronica and ancient Chinese music.

Chinese composer Fay Kueen-wang is behind the new production.

"When the Chinese cast teamed up to recreate an ancient Greek story, it showed us that a new generation of Chinese artists had been endowed with the spirit to break through culture and language barriers."

Chinese opera director Zou Shuang has reconstructed the story in order to set it in the context of the 21st century.

The staging of the tale of L'Orfeo has been made possible thanks to the assistance of the American band Invisible Anatomy.

Brendon Randall-Myers is a co-founder of the band.

"The way that this production distorts, like the cliché-art kind of distortion of history, I think it's pretty appropriate and make a lot of sense for just the way all the European art form gets translated through language and culture and technology on these different things. I think that the decision to make this production in English, as far as I know, had to do with making it performable internationally after this premiere."

L'Orfeo holds a special place in opera history, as it is one of the earliest compositions.

It tells the tale of a pair of lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice (eur-id-iss-see). When Eurydice dies, Orpheus travels to the Underworld to claim her.