USC Fall '21 Opera Artists

Orfeo and Euridice are about to get married. Euridice has a run-in with a resident of Skid Row who hits her. Euridice falls and slams her head into the sidewalk, seriously injured. The Abbott, who is nearby, rushes to help her. He picks her up and runs her offstage to an emergency care center. All assume Euridice is dead. 
Orfeo enters, searching for Euridice. He realizes something is not right and finally gathers that she is dead. His friends try to console him but he doesn’t hear them. He laments his young fiancee’s death. Amore, the God of Love, is so moved by Orfeo’s pain that he grants Orfeo access to the Afterlife to find Euridice under the stipulations that Orfeo may not look Euridice in the eyes, nor explain to her what is going on. Orfeo determines to go deeper into Skid Row to find Euridice and bring her back to the world of the living. 
Orfeo faces off with the guardians to the gates of the Afterlife. He moves them with his grief-stricken songs and they grant him entry to the land of the heroes. Orfeo is hypnotized by the beauty and peace he finds in Elysium but presses forward to rescue Euridice. 
Euridice returns from emergency care with her head stitched up and high on pain killers. Orfeo tries to get her to come with him, always being careful not to look at her or explain why he is not looking at her. Euridice becomes angry that he will not look at her or share any information about what is happening. Orfeo, try as he might to resist looking at Euridice, finally can’t take it anymore and looks at Euridice. Euridice promptly collapses. Orfeo, destroyed, mourns what has happened and determines to kill himself and join his lover in the land of the dead. Amore is proud that Orfeo has proven faithful. The Abbott realizes that Euridice has passed out. He gives her water and she, beginning to hydrate, comes to consciousness. The Abbott performs a marriage ceremony and for a brief moment, the residents of this corner of Skid Row share a moment of happiness.