Operas on the Orpheus Myth: Old to New Pittsburgh Opera by Jill Leahy Operas based on Orphean myths can be traced back to Education thanks our in in the earliest examples of the art form in 1600 and are generous supporters: continuing to be written into the 21 st Century. The following is a brief list of operas based on the myth. Allegheny Regional Asset District American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. th Bayer USA Foundation 17 Century 20 versions Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation Jean Cocteau, Italian composer Jacopo Peri is often called the inventor of Bridges General Contracting opera. He wrote the first work to be called an opera today, The Jack Buncher Foundation Dafne (around 1597), and also the first opera to have Anne L. & George H. Clapp survived to the present day, Charitable Trust Euridice (1600). Clearview Federal Credit Union Dominion Foundation 18 th Century 27 versions Eaton Corporation Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo Eden Hall Foundation EQT Foundation ed Euridice was a popular work, First Commonwealth Financial Corp. Orphée Score, published by ChesterNovello Photograph of Philip Glass by Annie Leibowitz and one of the most influential on Fort Pitt Capital Group subsequent German opera. The Frick Fund of the Buhl Foundation Opera Vancouver at Tim Matheson by Photo Production Myths, Movies, and Music Legends by Jill Leahy Giant Eagle Foundation 19 th Century 7 versions The Grable Foundation The ancient Greeks introduced many legendary heroes through the great Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in Hefren-Tillotson, Inc. Orphée body of stories they brought to the world. According to Greek mythology, the Underworld, first classical full- The Heinz Endowments Orpheus was a poet, musician, and prophet length operetta, premiered in Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield whose songs could charm both gods and wild Intermediate Unit #1 beasts and persuade the natural world—trees 1858. It is an irreverent parody Levin Furniture and scathing satire on Gluck and Massaro Corporation and rocks—to dance. According to many his Orfeo ed Euridice. Offenbach’s Richard King Mellon Foundation mythological traditions, Calliope (one of the nine opera culminates in the risqué National Endowment for the Arts RobertBruste by edited PhilipGlass and adapted by Muses) was his mother, and the god Apollo was Galop infernal that shocked some Pennsylvania Council on the Arts by Libretto Glass, Philip by Music his father. With the powers passed to him from in the audience at the premiere, Pennsylvania Department of Community & his parents, he was able to follow his dead wife but has become famous as the Economic Development Eurydice into the underworld to bring her back. Pennsylvania Department of Education Among deeper thoughts about mortality and music for the French "can-can." The PNC Financial Services Group immortality, and looking to the future and not th PPG Industries Foundation 20 Century 13 versions Bobby Rahal Automotive Group the past, Orpheus can be viewed as a metaphor Orphée by Philip Glass is a Reed Smith for the power of music to move us emotionally chamber opera with a libretto The Techs - MetalTech and to express our innermost feelings. adapted by the composer from Triangle Tech Group Jean Cocteau's film. United States Steel Corporation The Orpheus myth reflects universal human UPMC and UPMC Health Plan themes—it has been found in various forms in Late Roman statuette of Orpheus with the 21 st Century 3 versions many other cultural traditions, and has inspired lyre, surrounded by beasts (4th century), from Aegina, now on display in the Ricky Ian Gordon composed an poetry, paintings, books, and more. Orpheus has Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. hour-long song cycle in two acts, For more information on been the subject of at least seventy operas since Orpheus and Euridice . Pittsburgh Opera's education the 1600s. The French playwright Jean Cocteau was deeply interested in programs, please contact: the Orpheus myth and wrote a one-act play entitled Orphée in 1926. He Anaïs Mitchell released a concept transformed the play into a movie in 1949 using a contemporary setting in album called Hadestown that was Marilyn Michalka Egan, Ph.D. post-war France and a poet modeled after his own experience. advertised as a “folk opera,” set in Director of Education [email protected] Composer Philip Glass used the Cocteau film as the basis for his chamber Depression-era America. 412-281-0912 ext 242 opera Orphée. The composer’s libretto closely follows the script of the Judge Smith, English songwriter Pittsburgh Opera movie. A highly personal work, Orphée was composed in 1991 while Glass and founding member of progressive rock band Van der 2425 Liberty Avenue was mourning the sudden death of his wife, the artist Candy Jernigan. The Graaf Generator, released Orfeas , a "song story" with Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Study Guide to the Opera American Repertory Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music George Orfeas as a modern rock star. www.pittsburghopera.org commissioned Orphée ; it premiered in Cambridge, MA on May 14, 1993. Meet the Inspiration and Filmmaker by Jill Leahy Orphée Synopsis Characters Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (1889 – 1963) was a French poet, ACT I Orphée, a famous poet, chats with another old poet friend of the Opera novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist, and filmmaker. Cocteau is best and watches enviously as a group of young people swarm around known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet Cégeste, a younger up-and-coming poet. Orphée becomes Orphée [oar-FAY] baritone (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946), and transfixed with Cégeste’s patron, La Princesse, but the spell is A famous poet Orpheus (1949). His circle of associates, friends, and lovers included Pablo broken when the drunken Cégeste starts a brawl and is killed Picasso, actors Jean Marais, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich, the designer Coco outside by two motorcyclists. As the police attempt to move the Eurydice [uhr-ree-DEES] Chanel, composers Erik Satie and Igor Stravinsky, and singer Édith Piaf. body, La Princesse and her chauffeur, Heurtebise, intervene, and His wife soprano everyone clears out. At La Princesse's command, Orphée Cocteau always seemed to be working on projects, often simultaneously. A accompanies her and the corpse, then La Princesse brings La Princesse soprano Jean Cocteau sample schedule: In May, the paperback compendium of his plays, Théâtre de Death [lah pra(n)-SESS] 1983 portrait by Andy Warhol Cégeste back to life and leads him through a mirror. poche , arrived in bookstores. During the summer, Cocteau adapted the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire and organized the Festival du Film Maudit in Heurtebise [uhr-tuh-BEEZ] Heurtebise gives the stunned Orphée a radio and escorts him home, Biarritz. The filming of Orphée (Orpheus ) lasted from August to November. Orphée won top prizes at where Orphée’s wife, Eurydice, has been waiting for him to return. Her chauffeur tenor the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. In 1951, the filmmaker was made a chevalier Eurydice tries to tell Orphée she is pregnant, but the distracted Cégeste [say-ZHEST] of the Légion d'honneur —the first official recognition of Cocteau and his works. Orphée closes himself in his studio, along with the radio. As time A young poet tenor passes, Orphée becomes obsessed with listening to the radio. From 1950 onward, he was considered a true celebrity, often being asked to preside over events, to Neglecting Eurydice, he works feverishly to transcribe its mysterious Aglaonice mezzo-soprano write prefaces, to illustrate programs, and to design posters. In 1957, at the age of 68, he learned to messages, which he interprets as poetic inspiration. Desperately [ah-glah-oh-NEES] make pottery, he created a new collection of poems, and he attended a bullfight in Arles, France with unhappy, Eurydice turns to Heurtebise for comfort. Eurydice’s friend Picasso. While visiting Venice in 1958, he decided to take a training course at a Murano glass factory, then returned to Paris for the opening of an exhibition of his pottery at the Galerie Lucie Weill. Though Cégeste’s death and disappearance remain a mystery. At the Le Commissaire bass-baritone continuing his busy pace, in the early 1960s, his health started to fail and he began slowing down. On commissioner’s office, a group of poets accuse Orphée of [luh comm-ees-AIR] October 11,1963, one hour after learning of Édith Piaf's death, Jean Cocteau passed away. plagiarizing the dead Cégeste’s work. The commissioner, reminding Judge bass them that Orphée is a great poet and a national treasure, dismisses Poet bass them, and they threaten to find their own justice. Meanwhile, Reporter tenor Meet the Composer and Librettist: Eurydice leaves to visit her friend Aglaonice. Motorcycles are heard Glazier tenor Policeman baritone Philip Glass once again, and Heurtebise rushes out, returning a moment later Radio Announcer spoken carrying the dying Eurydice. When he tries to tell Orphée that his wife is near death, the poet ignores him, busy writing. Finally, (No chorus) Philip Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland in Orphée looks up from his work and Heurtebise informs him that 1937. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Eurydice is now dead. He tells Orphée that he can reclaim his wife from La Princesse, whom the Juilliard School, he also studied in France with Heurtebise reveals as Death. Orphée follows Heurtebise through the mirror. the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer ACT II In the underworld, La Princesse is on trial for taking Eurydice’s life without “orders.” Ravi Shankar. Through operas, symphonies, Cégeste, La Princesse, Orphée, Heurtebise, and Eurydice are each interrogated, and it is revealed Philip Glass - Book of Longing.