The 2008-09 LSU Opera Season opens this month with Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurice, and continues with Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia in March.LSU Opera, the oldest continual performing arts group in Louisiana history, produces two full-scale, main stage productions each academic year along with at least two smaller programs, according to a University news release. The 77-year-old LSU Opera program will perform in “new exciting community venues,” including the on-campus Reilly Theater and First Baptist Church. Orfeo ed Euridice, “one of the most significant scores in operatic history,” is Gluck’s best-known mid-18th-century work telling the myth of Orpheus, who mourns the loss of his beloved wife during a journey to the underworld where he faces danger and temptation.Orfeo ed Euridice is sun in Italian, directed by Dugg McDonough and conducted by Eugene Sirotkine. The first performance is Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. The second performance is Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. Both performances will be held in the First Baptist Church.Tickets may be purchased through LSU Opera’s Web site.——Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]