Orpheus

German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767), whose music interested his contemporaries Bach and Handel, is best known today for his concerti that invert the usual fast-slow-fast paradigm. One of the most prolific composers in history, he wrote around 50 stage works; many are lost to history or survive only in partial form. For the final offering of New York City Opera’s first season since departing from Lincoln Center, the company will utilize the intimate stage of El Museo del Barrio for the New York premiere of Telemann’s Orpheus.

The three-act opera had its premiere in Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt, one of the 18th century’s most influential and trendsetting theaters, in 1726. Like many Gänsemarkt shows, it is “macaronic”: sung in Italian, German and French. (Of course, City Opera pioneered supertitles in this country, and they’ll be in place for this show.) Subtitled Die wunderbare Beständigkeit der Liebe (“Love’s Wonderful Constancy”), this recounting of the semidivine musician’s quest to rescue his beloved Eurydice from the underworld does not have a happy ending, thanks to a feisty, jealous Thracian queen.

Daniel Teadt (Orpheus) and Jennifer Rowley (Queen Orasia) make their company debuts; lustrous-voiced Baroque soprano Joélle Harvey returns as Eurydice. Obie-winning director Rebecca Taichman, who has made her name with bold Shakespeare adaptations as well as contemporary drama, seems an inspired choice to helm this novel yet classically sourced work. —David Shengold

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