Shameless, funny and cheeky! In Barrie Kosky's wildly acclaimed production at the 2019 Salzburg Festival, the first Offenbach operetta in the festival’s nearly 100-year-long history, grandiose Mythological Travesty joins an enthusiastic ensemble of the highest caliber. Led by the inimitable Max Hopp as John Styx, who lends his speaking voice to each figure on stage, Sydney Mancasola as Eurydice, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Pluto and Peter Bording as Jupiter plunge into a gaudy, impudent, and hellish underworld.

Offenbach’s starting point is »slightly« different than that of the myth: Eurydice, the central figure, hates the music personified by her spouse. And Orpheus himself is nothing more than a music teacher of minor importance from Thebes; Aristaeus, the divine seducer, is playing a honey trader, and Jupiter, the »father of the gods«, is a horny goat, constantly on the prowl. The mysterious John Styx tells the story of the petty-bourgeois Orpheus and his annoyed Eurydice, of goddesses and gods in search of diversion, weary of everyday life on Olympus. Burning with curiosity about the beautiful abductee and the contest between Jupiter and Pluto for the favour of Eurydice, the illustrious company embarks on a hellish ride into the underworld, culminating in what is probably the most famous cancan in music history. And Eurydice? She wreaks havoc on everyone in the end.

Together with Otto Pichler's sensuous-absurd choreography, Rufus Didwiszu's convertible stage settings and Victoria Behr's costumes with a hint of the »Parisian«, director Barrie Kosky ignites Offenbach's »Fire of Disrespect« (Émile Zola) anew. »Max Hopp as the voice of John Styx is an excellent casting – as wonderfully peculiar as the production itself.« [The New York Times]