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Orpheus and Eurydice review – acrobatic Gluck is haunting, dizzying and gasp-inducing

Edinburgh international festivalIestyn Davies is outstanding as the tortured Orpheus in Yaron Lifschitz’s stark and imaginative stagingFollowing on from their enthralling Southbank Centre Daphnis et Chloé earlier this year, Orpheus and Eurydice offers a second chance to experience the work of Brisbane-based Circa under the director, choreographer and set designer Yaron Lifschitz. With its streamlined dramatic structure and built-in ballets, Gluck’s great reformation opera proves fertile ground for the company’s agile blend of acrobatics and contemporary dance.The action opens with the dying Eurydice tumbling through space. So extreme is Orpheus’s grief, it seems, that he has wound up in an asylum, strapped to one of a series of hospital beds that, along with a tiny glass house, make up Lifschitz’s minimalist set. The acrobats swirl over and under him – every man an Orpheus, every woman a Eurydice – recalling the emotional volatility of their relationship and Orpheus’s feverish hopes and fears for their future. Continue reading...

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