Imagine if Carl Milles’s statue of Orpheus outside Konserthuset Stockholm were suddenly to come to life. Orpheus misses Eurydice so deeply that he and the eight other women and men leap down from the pedestal and rush out into the Stockholm night in search of her.

Outside the stage door of the Royal Swedish Opera he believes he has found her – the opera soprano who has just sung the role of Eurydice in Gluck’s opera. Orpheus takes her to the nightclub Baren, where various dance numbers take place, including the Bartender’s Dance. Later, Orpheus and his companions return to their own reality, and the soprano is rescued and brought back to the Opera.

The Russian-born Vera Sager, married to a Swedish diplomat, conceived the idea for this ballet scenario when she saw the newly unveiled sculpture at Hötorget in 1936. Julian Algo created the choreography for Hilding Rosenberg’s work, which received its world premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1938.

Here we hear the suite that Rosenberg later compiled from the ballet music, first performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra on the radio in 1940.