It took me a while to adjust to the idea of him as an evil Head of Secret Police figure, taking pleasure in torture and conspiring against Zeus, as that is not how I've ever seen Hephaestus at all! But it made for a good character within the story, and played particularly well against Zeus, whose authoritarianism was of the amiable kind. Zeus' power was obviously so secure that he could afford to assume everyone loved him and lounge around in a dressing-gown, but Hephaestus helped to hint at what he was actually capable of and must have done to get there.

There's a little trailer at the top of the website, but it only includes the prelude with a bit of recitative, not e.g. any of Zeus' big thundering arias. Still, it does give a sense of what the music is like and glimpses of some of the characters.