Offenbach's theater license, granted in 1855, limited his stage works to one act and three performers. Three years later, authorities lifted these restrictions, enabling Offenbach to forge his most enduring creations, the first of which was Orphée aux enfers. It is one of numerous of Offenbach's works that are satires of familiar tales.

Ludovic Halévy (1799-1862) drafted a libretto on the Orpheus legend early in 1858, but its size placed it outside the limits set up by Offenbach's license. When the restrictions were lifted, Offenbach prompted Halévy and Hector Crémieux (1828-1892) to complete the libretto. Orphée aux enfers was Offenbach's first two-act work and would become the archetypical French operetta. Orphée and Euridyce were the first operetta hero and heroine and the chorus became in integral part of the action and music. The reception of the first performance on October 21, 1858, at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, was mediocre, although a few critics were genuinely impressed with the new work. Dissatisfied, Offenbach began to make cuts to the score, but this failed to bring people to the theater in great numbers. Vital publicity came about in early 1859 when a critic, Jules Janin, wrote desparagingly of Orphée aux enfers, calling it a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity." Offenbach, in a public reply, noted that one of Pluto's numbers was derived from Janin's writings, a revelation that piqued the interest of the Parisian public and made the show a hit. After 228 performances Orphée aux enfers was withdrawn, not due to lack of ticket sales, but merely to give the performers a rest. The piece returned to the stage a few weeks later. For the Vienna production of 1860 Carl Binder provided an overture, which has become the standard, and famous, overture.

Halévy and Crémieux and Offenbach's thinly veiled caricatures of contemporary political and cultural figures and ideals fueled the success of Orphée aux enfers. The lustful Jupiter was easily interpreted as the womanizing Emperor Napoleon III; Orphée as a restless, bored bourgeois; and Eurydice's song to Bacchus and the wild cancans parallel the middle and upper classes' hedonistic predilections. Of course, Offenbach's music was ultimately responsible of the poplarity of Orphée. The composer parodies contemporary sentimental ballads in Orphée's violin solo and borrows Gluck's "Che farò" (from Orfeo ed Euridice) and the Marseillaise. Amusing incongruities, such as having the gods dance a cancan, pepper the score. Offenbach parodies elements of grand opera in the silly, bawdy duo de la Mouche (Fly duet) in Act Two. The finales are the high points of the operetta and feature increasing speed and intensity that lead to a climax. For example, the first act begins very quietly with Orphée and Eurydice alone, but ends in a very fast tempo with all the gods performing a galop and leaving the stage.

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