A few caveats preceded Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater’s performance of “Orphée aux Enfers.” Dona D. Vaughn, director of the production, reminded the audience that all the singers were undergraduates, some of them performing for the first time with an orchestra.
A few, she added, even made their own costumes.
She could have skipped the caveat, because the Offenbach comedy bubbled merrily, with hardly a weak link in the cast, orchestra or even the no-frills set.
“Orphée” spoofs the myth of the tragic poet Orpheus, who descended into Hades to rescue his beloved Eurydice. In this 1858 romp, the couple is bored with each other, and she welcomes death as a way out of a loveless marriage.
The tuneful score of waltzes and patter songs builds to the famous cancan, a 19th-century dance craze accompanying the gods of Olympus at a drunken party in hell.
Among the fresh-voiced young cast, a clear standout was Tamara Rusqué in the supporting role of the goddess Diana. Her big, tangy soprano and megawatt comic energy lit up the stage.
As the randy god Jupiter, Tyler Schoen displayed an attractive budding baritone. If Justin Gordon’s tenor scratched a bit as Pluto, god of death, he landed every joke in the spoken dialogue.
Another tenor, Stephen Biegner, sounded crisp and acted properly pompous as Orphée. A few wayward high notes aside, Monica Danilov chirped prettily as Eurydice.
Vaughn’s staging kept things simple, with the singers mostly facing out to the audience, the better to project both voices and facial expressions. From a corner of the Ades Performance Space, Jorge Parodi led a 25-piece orchestra that — unlike many student ensembles — stayed firmly in tune all night.
Yes, Orpheus went to hell, but this charming “Orphée” needed no excuses.