[1] A recorded version conducted by Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins has also received good reviews.

Eurydice later dies from a snake bite, and Orpheus consults the Oracle of the Dead, intending to follow her to the Underworld.

At the start of this act, time is moving backwards: Orpheus travels back out of and into the Underworld, and Eurydice dies once more.

One version of the Orpheus story is that he is then killed by a thunderbolt thrown by Zeus, while another is that he is dismembered by the women of Dionysus.

Anderson's premature death in 1987, as well as a paucity of extant sketch material, has made an objective assessment of the collaboration unclear.

The issue has been raised of whether Birtwistle has acknowledged the true extent of his collaboration with Anderson as a fellow composer.

All the masks and costumes were designed to appear timeless, so as to avoid placing the opera in a specific era.