Orpheus in the Underworld Orpheus in the Underworld Orphée aux enfers, whose title translates from the French as Orpheus in the Underworld, is an opéra bouffon (a form of operetta), or opéra féerie in its revised version. Its score was composed by Jacques Offenbach to a French text written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux. The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta. Offenbach's earlier operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France did not allow full-length works of certain genres. "Orpheus" was not only longer, but more musically adventurous than Offenbach's
Orpheus voice. Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice" likewise presents the story of Orpheus' descent to the underworld from Eurydice's perspective. Ruhl removes Orpheus from the center of the story by pairing their romantic love with the paternal love of Eurydice's dead father. David Almond's 2014 novel, "A Song for Ella Grey", was inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2015. The 2014 novel "Orfeo" by Richard Powers is based on Orpheus. Vinicius de Moraes' play "Orfeu da Conceição" (1956), later adapted by Marcel Camus in the 1959 film "Black Orpheus", tells the story in