Event

Orpheus and Euridice

The Orpheus Project and Collaborative Stages are coming together to produce two weeks of fully-staged performances of Ricky Ian Gordon's dramatic song cycle Orpheus and Euridice in New York City from June 2-12. The Greek myth's themes of devoted love and the creation of beauty out of suffering are as relevant now as they were thousands of years ago. Gordon's poignant contemporary setting of the Orphic tragedy, for clarinet, soprano, and piano, translates the myth's powerful lessons into a modern tale that gives both perspective and hope to the problems of our times. Orpheus and Euridice features Heather Dudenbostel, Soprano, Ryan Dudenbostel, Clarinet, Jad Bernardo, Piano and is directed by Brian Letchworth and produced by Sarah Jane Arnegger. All tickets are $20.00 and for more information on the music and project, please visit www.orpheusproject.org.

Completed in 2001, Ricky Ian Gordon's hour-long song cycle Orpheus and Euridice is the most recent interpretation of the Orphic myth by a major composer. The text, which he wrote himself, is at once timeless and highly personal, and the music is epic in scope while still maintaining the blend of modern art music and popular musical theatre for which Mr. Gordon is so well-known. In his setting of the tale, told by the soprano as she recounts a dream she had, Orpheus is represented by the clarinet, who speaks in music through his instrument. Labeled by the composer as a "dramatic song cycle," Orpheus and Euridice was intended to be presented not only through music, but also through movement and stagecraft.