(Credits: LA Opera official website / Komische Oper Berlin official website / Oper Wuppertal official website / © Lioba Schöneck)

The Komische Oper Berlin will present a production of Jacque Offenbach‘s opera buffa “Orphée aux enfers” in December 2021.

American soprano Sydney Mancasola makes her long anticipated debut in the role of Eurydice, while tenor Tansel Akzeybek appears in the title role. The cast also includes bass Max Hopp as John Styx, countertenor and baritone Hagen Matzeit as the Public Opinion, tenor Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke in the role of Pluto, baritone Peter Bording as Jupiter, mezzo-soprano Karolina Gumos in the role of Juno, soprano Alma Sadé as Venus, mezzo-soprano Maria Fiselier as Diana, mezzo-soprano Nadine Weissmann in the role of Cupid, tenor Peter Renz as Mercury, and bass Tim Dietrich in the role of Mars.

Adrien Perruchon conducts a production by Barrie Kosky with dramaturgy by Susanna Goldberg. Victoria Behr is responsible for costume design. The opera is a co-production with the Salzburger Festspielen and Deutschen Oper am Rhein.

“The Offenbach is a good challenge. He didn’t write as lyrically for the voice (Antonia is an exception), but the women are clever and full of energy and when paired with Kosky something magical happens,” Sydney Mancasola told the OperaWire. “Kosky’s brilliant staging underlines the feminist themes of the piece without making a martyr of Eurydice. She is crass, rebellious, hilarious, spoiled, fabulous, and wretched all at the same time. What I always love about performing Barrie’s women is that he doesn’t simply break down the facade of the stereotypical female ingenue, he blows it up with dynamite and turns the wreckage into something incredibly entertaining for the audience,” added Mancasola.

The run of “Orphée aux enfers” at the Komische Oper Berlin will begin on Dec. 7, 2021, and is set to end on Dec. 31, 2021.