Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers is one of those evergreens that can sustain an infinite variety of versions and settings. I have seen productions set underwater, on the moon and in the Clinton White House. The present production is set in a kind of neutral zone, somewhere between the farces of the Moulin Rouge and the shenanigans in the current White House.

Kerrie-Anne Greenland as Eurydice in Melbourne Conservatorium of Music’s Orpheus in the Underworld. Photo supplied

I’m happy to report that it all works very well indeed. Offenbach’s deliciously frothy music and biting satire survive unharmed and unhindered, no matter how much the setting and the libretto have been updated.

Like many in Melbourne, I am an admirer of Jane Davidson’s productions. They are always imaginative, witty and intelligently conceived. Moreover, she seeks out venues which amplify the ethos of her repertoire. In recent productions, a Bach passion has soared into the heights of a cathedral, Poulenc’s Carmelites have been guillotined in a convent with a mysterious past, and Britten’s Albert Herring has been crowned May King in a dowdy civic hall. One might have expected Offenbach’s Orpheus to be sent gallivanting around...