Mark "Sex Dwarf" Almond, having already recorded one album of English-language versions of Soviet-era Russian pop songs, as released an album entirely of covers of songs by the Stalin-era singer Vadim Kozin: http://thequietus.com/articles/02691-marc-almond-orpheus-in-exile-the-songs-of-vadim-kozin-album-review
There's nothing in long-forgotten Russian torch singer Vadim Kozin's songs that refers to Orphic mythology; nonetheless, Almond's choice of title for his set of English language interpretations is beautifully apt. In many versions of the tale, Persephone, queen of the underworld, only once bent the rules and allowed a soul to leave. Orpheus, distraught after the death of his wife Eurydice, had roamed Hades singing his laments, which Persephone found so plaintively beautiful as to elicit her sole moment of apparent mercy. She struck a deal with Orpheus, agreeing that the pair could return to the world of the living, as long as Orpheus agreed to walk in front of Eurydice and not look back until they had both departed the afterlife. In accordance with the Road Runner cartoon unfairness of Greek mythology – a set of parables seemingly designed to remind the reader that the Gods are arseholes – Orpheus predictably does happen to glance back a little bit too early, and Eurydice is destroyed forever. One presumes Persephone did this primarily for "teh lulz". Kozin's story is no less bleakly romantic and maddeningly unjust. A major star in Soviet Russia throughout the 20s and 30s, he then went on to serve as a Bob Hope-style troop entertainer during World War II, even providing the entertainment after a meeting of the "big three" of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Etc. (with clips!): http://thequietus.com/articles/02691-marc-almond-orpheus-in-exile-the-songs-of-vadim-kozin-album-review