Editing Orpheus in the Underworld (section)

====Act 1, Scene 1: The countryside near Thebes, Ancient Greece====
A spoken introduction with orchestral accompaniment (Introduction and Melodrame) opens the work. Public Opinion explains who she is – the guardian of morality ({{lang|fr|"Qui suis-je? du Théâtre Antique"}}).<ref>Crémieux, pp. 10–11</ref> She says that unlike the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] in Ancient Greek plays she does not merely comment on the action, but intervenes in it, to make sure the story maintains a high moral tone. Her efforts are hampered by the facts of the matter: Orphée is not the son of [[Apollo]], as in classical myth, but a rustic teacher of music, whose dislike of his wife, Eurydice, is heartily reciprocated. She is in love with the shepherd, Aristée (Aristaeus), who lives next door ({{lang|fr|"La femme dont le coeur rêve"}}),<ref>Crémieux, pp. 11–12</ref> and Orphée is in love with Chloë, a shepherdess. When Orphée mistakes Eurydice for her, everything comes out, and Eurydice insists they abandon the marriage. Orphée, fearing Public Opinion's reaction, torments his wife into keeping the scandal quiet using violin music, which she hates ({{lang|fr|"Ah, c'est ainsi"}}).<ref>Crémieux, pp. 15–18</ref>
[[File:Marie Garnier as Vénus-1858.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Marie Garnier as Vénus in the original 1858 production|alt=Young woman with dark hair and moderately revealing pseudo-Ancient-Greek costume]]

Aristée enters. Though seemingly a shepherd he is in reality Pluton (Pluto), God of the Underworld. He keeps up his disguise by singing a pastoral song about sheep ({{lang|fr|"Moi, je suis Aristée"}}).<ref>Crémieux, pp. 21–22</ref> Eurydice has discovered what she thinks is a plot by Orphée to kill Aristée – letting snakes loose in the fields – but is in fact a conspiracy between Orphée and Pluton to kill her, so that Pluton may have her and Orphée be rid of her. Pluton tricks her into walking into the trap by showing immunity to it, and she is bitten.{{refn|In their plot summary in ''Gänzl's Book of Musical Theatre'', [[Kurt Gänzl]] and [[Andrew Lamb (writer)|Andrew Lamb]] write "she gets an asp in the ankle".<ref>Gänzl and Lamb, p. 278</ref>|group=n}} As she dies, Pluton transforms into his true form (Transformation Scene).<ref>Crémieux, p. 27</ref> Eurydice finds that death is not so bad when the God of Death is in love with one ({{lang|fr|"La mort m'apparaît souriante"}}).<ref>Crémieux, pp. 29–29</ref> They descend into the Underworld as soon as Eurydice has left a note telling her husband she has been unavoidably detained.<ref>Crémieux, p. 29</ref>

All seems to be going well for Orphée until Public Opinion catches up with him, and threatens to ruin his violin teaching career unless he goes to rescue his wife. Orphée reluctantly agrees.<ref>Crémieux, pp. 30–32</ref>