Eurydice (Ruhl play)

rdf:langString Eurydice (Ruhl play)

rdf:langString Eurydice is a 2003 play by Sarah Ruhl which retells the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. The story focuses on Eurydice's choice to return to earth with Orpheus or to stay in the underworld with her father (a character created by Ruhl). Ruhl made several changes to the original myth's story-line. The most noticeable of these changes was that in the myth Orpheus succumbs to his desires and looks back at Eurydice, while in Ruhl's version Eurydice calls out to Orpheus (causing him to look back) perhaps in part because of her fear of reentering the world of the living and perhaps as a result of her desire to remain in the land of the dead with her father. Ruhl's script has been explicitly written so as to be a playground for the designer of the sets. The play was adapted by Ruhl for the libretto of an opera by the same name, with music composed by Matthew Aucoin, and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Eurydice premiered in Los Angeles in February 2020 and at the Metropolitan Opera on November 23, 2021. Its opening at the Met was postponed because of the Covid 19 pandemic.