Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Georg Philipp Telemann: Orpheus

Francesco Corti conducts Orpheus.

Aug 2–16, 2025
Drottningens paviljong, 178 93 Drottningholm, Sweden

Of all the titles produced in modern times at the fabled Baroque jewel box of Drottningholm, Gluck’s thrice-familiar Orpheus opera has been the clear favorite. So here, for a change, is Georg Philipp Telemann’s long-lost Orpheus, with its clunky alternate title “Die wunderbare Beständigkeit der Liebe.” For variety, the mostly German score is dotted with numbers in French and Italian. More daringly, there’s a new heroine pining for the guy with the lyre. Meet Queen Orasia of Thrace! “If the message of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is that you cannot go back and change your destiny,” the Drottningholm announcement suggests, “the message of the addition of Orasia is that you cannot change the destiny of another person either.” —Matthew Gurewitsch