Eurydice

After Opera Grand Rapids produced his opera Second Nature in 2021 and brought him to Grand Rapids to adjudicate the VanderLaan Prize in 2022, Matthew Aucoin invited Opera Grand Rapids to partner with the Boston Lyric Opera to co-commission a chamber version of his hit opera Eurydice. The first ever commission project in Opera Grand Rapids’ history, this stunning opera premiered in full-scale at The Metropolitan Opera in 2021, after a world premiere at the LA Opera in 2020. Eurydice reconceives the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, telling the story from the heroine’s perspective. We follow Eurydice into the underworld, where she first passes through the River of Forgetfulness, then encounters her deceased father. By the time Orpheus comes to find her, Eurydice has become a different person and is not sure she wants to return to life.