Mirjam Mesak

Orphea in Love, now, fuses many of these diverse forays for a singular piece of musical theatre cinema. Structurally a musical or operetta, it features famous opera tunes paired with modern classical ballet choreographies. Befittingly, the title might insinuate a version of Jacques Offenbach's 1858 Orphée aux enfers (we have that somewhere else in the programme, though!), but the story of young, multi-job hassled Nele, her dream of opera stardom, and her love for dancer Kolya feels in its razzmatazzy mix of realism and kitsch simultaneously closer to Flashdance (1983; Adrian Lyne) and the average Lady Gaga music video. Wow. WOW!

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Die tote Stadt" in a Bayerische Staatsoper production from 2019, directed by Simon Stone. Kirill Petrenko is conducting Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen.

An average guy of an Estonian high-school decides to defend his bullied classmate. This starts a war between him and the informal leader of the class. As teenagers' honour is a touchy thing, everything ends in bloodshed.