Orfeu da Conceição

Orfeu da Conceição (Orpheus of the Conception) is a stage play with music in three acts by Vinicius de Moraes and music by Antônio Carlos Jobim that premiered in 1956 in Rio de Janeiro. The play became the basis for the films Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus, 1959) and Orfeu (1999), and for the musicals Orfeu (Brazil, 2010) and Black Orpheus (Broadway, 2014).

The play sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a contemporary favela in Rio de Janeiro during the Brazilian Carnival. Started in 1954, the play was first performed on 25 September 1956 at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.

Vinicius de Moraes assembled major names of Brazilian culture to participate in the production. Antônio Carlos Jobim co-wrote the songs and conducted the orchestra, Luiz Bonfá performed on guitar, Oscar Niemeyer did the stage design, Djanira and Carlos Scliar designed the posters, and Abdias do Nascimento performed in the original cast and provided other actors from his Black Experimental Theater.

Songs to the play were released on an Odeon-EMI LP (MODB 3.056) in the year of the play's premiere.