German baroque composer Christoph Gluck’s Orpheus & Eurydice presents several challenges for the contemporary opera director. There are only three characters, for a start. When the story opens, Orpheus/Orfeo (Iestyn Davies) has already lost his bride, Eurydice (Samantha Clarke), to a snake bite on their wedding day. She has been taken to the Underworld, to a paradise within hell. His mourning encompasses the opera’s opening half hour, before he is alerted by the figure of Amore (also played by Clarke in a key doubling) that he may have a chance to reclaim his love.

Anyone who has even the vaguest familiarity with the myth will know the offer is a poisoned chalice. Orfeo must descend into hell to rescue Eurydice, but he won’t be able to explain himself to her, nor look at her as they make their way out again. Is the world’s most ardent lover expected to remain aloof right at the moment of reunion? It is clearly not going to work out well. In fact, it’s designed not to.