Orpheus in the underworld

Orpheus lives as a violin virtuoso and music professor in a semi-antique Thebes modeled on Paris around 1900; Eurydice, his neglected wife, has an affair with a shepherd. When he turns out to be Pluto, the "Prince of Darkness", and abducts Eurydice to the underworld, Orpheus is delighted, as he hopes to be able to continue his extramarital escapades unmolested.


But Jacques Offenbach, who floats down in a captive balloon, persuades him to rescue his unloved wife ... The film version of Jacques Offenbach's operetta, "alienated" with modern elements, allows its audience to recognize aspects of everyday life in the GDR: a gerontocracy indulging in luxury in the "seat of the gods" Olympus and a working class in Hades dubbed "dear colleagues". (cit. Berlinale, Retrospective 2025).

• Directed by Horst Bonnet
  
• with Wolfgang Greese, Dorit Gäbler, Rolf Hoppe, Lisa Macheiner, Achim Wichert
  
• 87' min, GDR 1973
  
• A musical from the GDR, filmed in 70mm format with 6-channel magnetic sound on ORWO Color
  
• As guest Rainer Rother (requested)
  
• German