The tragic love of Orpheus for Eurydice has inspired poets, artists, and musicians—among them Rainer Maria Rilke, Christophe Willibald Gluck, and in our own time choreographer Mark Morris and composer Philip Glass, whose 1993 Orphee Suite was inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film.
An interesting event exploring the Orpheus theme will take place in the black box performance space, The Edye, behind The Broad Stage Sunday afternoon.
Pianist Paul Barnes will perform segments of Orphée Suite for Piano, his transcription from the Glass opera for solo piano; a segment of Marcel Camus’s Brazilian film Black Orpheus will screen; and contemporary poets Henri Cole, Robin Coste Lewis, and Atsuro Riley will present contemporary work of their own and that of classic poetic forbears. The event is sponsored in partnership with The Poetry Society of America and Red Hen Press.
Balanchine, too, choreographed to this theme, as did Pina Bausch.
The Figure of Orpheus in Poetry and Performance | The Edye at The Broad Stage | Sun April 28
