Onstage strode Orpheus, a fine, sturdy figure of a man, wearing a beige and green costume, and carrying a gilded lyre. In the orchestra the noble trombones swelled to the point where Orpheus would sing of his decision to seek Eurydice in Hades. Four thousand guests at France's Aix-les-Bains music festival, including Italy's ex-King Umberto and ex-Queen Marie José, leaned forward. The hero was about to make his impassioned plea: "Give her back to me, you powers of Hell!" Instead, the audience heard his hoarse shout in Italian-accented French:"I refuse to go on until the management pays me 75,000 francs extra!"
Then...
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