Classics in Contemporary Culture

Odysseus and the Cyclops Walk into a Bar...

Joe Goodkin will perform his version of the Odyssey--a half-hour folk-song epic--in Chicago (Schubas) on Dec. 6.  Here's more:

Goodkin, who was a classics major at University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote the Odyssey piece years ago and has performed it more than 100 times, mainly for high school students about to read Homer's poem.

But, the Dec. 6 show will be the first time he's performed it at a watering hole. He knows today's adults don't have great memories of studying The Odyssey as high school freshmen. But, if they keep in mind what the story is about -- a father trying to get back home to his wife and child -- they'll be able to sympathize, he said.

"My take on it is to boil it down to the emotions of the story," Goodkin said. "Hopefully, it gets them talking."

Dīva Potēns Cyprī (er...Sydnī?...mundī?)

Kylie Minogue becomes the original Diva for her new project:

Perfecting every character – a girl next door, a fashion plate and a club minx – with a style of her own, Kylie Minogue is back with a bang in a new avatar for her new album The Australian pop star has transformed herself into the character of the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sexuality, Aphrodite, for the launch of her album of the same name. The sexy lead single, ‘All the Lovers’, officially released this week, already popular with fans.

Rumour has it that she may even tour Australia to promote the album.

“For me, the most exciting part of this is still performing and the energy from that . . . I really want to do a festival,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Minogue as saying. The star claims her inspiration for one great makeover after another is Madonna.

“Madonna’s the queen of pop, I’m the princess.

“I’m quite happy with that. Her huge influence on the world, in pop and fashion, meant that I wasn’t immune to the trends she created. But in the beginning, she made it difficult for artists like me; she had done everything there was to be done.” Minogue rocked the stage with her earlier makeovers in ‘Confide in Me’, and ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ and she admits that they came out as an expression of how she felt at the time. “If I parallel my private life to my career, there’s a reason for all of those changes,” she said.

“I was the girl next door, then I was rebelling, then I was vamping it up. It’s all what I was feeling at the time. I can be a little embarrassed about it but that’s part of growing up in public.”

Minogue describes her new album ‘Aphrodite’ as ‘euphoric pop’.

“It is a very lean album,” she said.

“There is nothing spare, nothing unnecessary and absolutely no fat at all. My favourite song is Aphrodite, the title track. There’s a lyric about me being fierce, which I like.”

Prog Rock's Blessed Afterlife

A band slated to kick off this weekend's "Mountain Jam" (Hunter, NY) is called "Elysian Theory"; guitarist Tim Reid explains their name as follows:

Reid said in Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields in Elysium, were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. Medieval poet, Dante Alighieri, based Canto IV of “The Divine Comedy” (The first circle of Hell; the Virtuous Heathen; Limbo) on the mythological Elysian Fields.

“We’d been trying to come up with a name and ‘Elysium’ just resonated with us,” Reid said. He said the name is particularly apt, since the band often writes about spiritual issues, but he delineated the spiritual from the religious.

And, “theory,” felt right, interjected Feeney, since matters of spirituality are perceived by some as a philosophy or theory. Both words have multiple layers of meaning, he said. Reyes, Reid and Feeney, the original members, selected the name.

Their music? A blend of old & new:

Reyes said the band’s music, loosely defined as “progressive rock,” is intended to transport listeners to another time and place that’s individual to each listener. He said Elysium Theory strives to capture that sensation by mixing passionate playing with technical skill and draws on both classic and modern influences.

Reid said the band writes its own songs, music it likes listening to, but also performs classics by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Who, Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree. “We’ve created a sound that is familiar and new, challenging, yet easy to listen to,” he said.

Sapphic Songs

Bernard Rands' new vocal setting of fragmentary poems by Sappho, now again, was performed at the University of Chicago's Harris Theatre (in the "Contempo" concert series)--it sounds pretty interesting:

Scored for mezzo-soprano soloist with backing septet, now again draws upon Paul Roche’s translations and free renderings of the few surviving fragmented stanzas of the celebrated yet historically nebulous poet of Lesbos. The score is less a dramatic song cycle than a reflective meditation, painting a spare, melismatic evocation of the broken, elliptical texts.

Yet Rands’ luminous music is consistently compelling and ear-catching, lyrical yet cast with neo-Classical restraint as with the bardic opening for solo harp that introduces the words “Far sweeter-tuned / than a lyre/ Golder than gold / softer than velvet.” Rands adds pointillist dashes of trumpet, flute and percussion amid effective use of an echoing soprano and alto (Amy Conn and Nina Heebink).

Susanne Mentzer proved a fine advocate for this music, her dark-hued voice assaying the leaps and challenges of the restless vocal line and conveying the texts’ sensuality and expressive nuance. Conductor Cliff Colnot brought his usual meticulous preparation and concentrated direction to the score, allowing all the crystalline subtleties to register.

Fantasia: My Little Flying Horses

Pop Classics has a nice run-down of the Pastoral Symphony section of Disney's Fantasia (or, as a commenter nicely puts it, the "Disneyfication of the modern reception of the Romantic reception of the Roman reception of Greek mythology"), encompassing My Little Pony, race relations, and Charles Dickens.  The conclusion:

A lot of this sequence relies on the 'cuteness' factor, so how much you like it will depend on how you feel about 'cute' things, while the gender and racial aspects and distinctly disturbing. I still love it, though - it puts a sense of magic and wonder into Greek mythology that isn't always found, and the Greek pastoral motifs of Pan, satyrs, pan pipes and the creatures of the countryside fit the Pastoral Symphony perfectly. And it was really good inspiration for My Little Pony games...

A Spoonful of Pop Music Helps Thucydides Go Down...

Charlie Roadman, of Austin, Texas, has put together something of a tour de force:  A musical album entitled Athens v. Sparta that offers a rendition of the Peloponnesian War based on Thucydides (and Xenophon)!  Here's the San Antonio Current:

A combination pop-opera, Greek drama, modern allegory, and historical CliffsNotes created by Trinity University history grad and musician Charlie Roadman, the album resonates on several levels and is likely unlike anything you’ve ever heard. It details how Athens’ cultural hubris, faltering democracy, self-serving oligarchs, indifference to its allies, and ill-considered military adventurism resulted in a war doomed by poor prosecution and overextended forces.
...

As the conflict winds chronologically through its 27-year course, the modern-day resonance is striking. In “Civil War in Corcyra: Stasis,” Webster explains that as revolution spread, the meanings of commonly accepted words were changed to suit opportunistic politicians. “Reckless audacity was declared courage. Exhibiting foresight and caution meant you were a coward and deceitful. The ability to see all sides of a question meant that you were unable to act on any. Plotting against your opponents was a justifiable means of self-defense. Party membership and loyalty came to be regarded as the highest virtues,” Webster intones in his measured but forceful delivery.
...

The album’s genesis goes back to 1991, when Roadman and Buttercup singer Erik Sanden were assigned Thucydides and Xenophon’s couple-thousand-page tome, and blew off reading it until three days before the final. Justifiably concerned, they crammed by reading alternate chapters then recounting the events to each other, effectively halving the assignment. The story stuck with them, and eight years ago Sanden bought Roadman the definitive edition of the text, The Landmark Thucydides, edited by Robert Strassler.

This encouraged Roadman to write a song about Pericles’ funeral oration, a rabble-rousing rant that provoked the Athenians into war, reminding them of their glorious history and suggesting that “judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom, and freedom of valor, never decline the dangers of war.” It was still more a lark than obsession at this point. “I was just writing songs about whatever amused me, history, news, or National Geographic,” Roadman says.

A few years later, he wrote another song based on the Peloponnesian War, “Life in the Spartan Army,” and then another, and decided to dedicate an entire album to the war. Comparing it to Christo wrapping the Reichstag, he admits that, “I pretty much knew it was an absurd thing, and that’s what attracted me to it. Just the absurdity of doing something I was laughing about the second I thought about it.”

[Thanks to RogueClassicism.]

Troyjam Revisited

Since I was not entirely clear on the concept when I first learned of it, I suppose it's only fair to return to the subject of Troyjam (now having been the schooled by the composer and his wife apparently, in the comments section, and this Washington Post review of the performance).  Bottom line:  A positive experience. 

When orchestras commission newworks for children's concerts, the results are often cutesy, pandering or forced. Happily, Michael Daugherty and Anne Carson's "Troyjam," presented by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, is, instead, something you see all too seldom: a piece of quality work, with strong music and beautiful language, conceived for children. Whether it will actually appeal to children is another question, but one hopes that other orchestras will pick it up and give everyone a chance to find out.

The strength begins with the libretto by Anne Carson, a gifted poet who has created here a luminous assemblage of words. The piece depicts a Trojan War fought with instruments rather than weapons. Most children today may not know what the Trojan War is, and some of Carson's language is almost certainly over their heads ("Another empty evening slumps against the wall of Achilles' heart . . . Night is gristle. He chews it, he ponders. Who will ever end this stupid war if he does not?" or "All the flutes on Hektor's back are picking up the tune, as if a bunch of gods with tiny silver lips were loose inside his quiver"). But the story is reasonably clear, and I would argue, possibly impractically, that exposing children to words of this caliber is a good thing.

Daugherty's music sets lines equally clear and strong, delivered in small doses that leave you wanting more, highlighting the different sections of the orchestra without being for a moment didactic. It is not an inconsiderable feat to create small fragments of music that are catchy and illustrative without smacking of a cartoon soundtrack; Daugherty creates a couple of strong themes, builds the piece around them, and then lets the orchestra have its head, all too briefly, in a narration-free sequence of no more than a few minutes at the end.

The concert as a whole was designed to introduce kids to the various sections of the orchestra, with the help of Mike Rowe, the host of the TV show "Dirty Jobs," who between numbers went among the players to talk about the dirty aspects of what they did (Violinists use hair from a horse's bottom! The brass release spit from their valves!). However, the jokes were not necessarily clear enough for kids to understand them; it was never explained, for example, that horsehair is a component of a violin bow, so the humor went right over some small heads.

Operatic Iphigenia

The Seattle Opera and the Met are collaborating on a production of Iphigenia in Tauris (Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride).  This article cites the director, Stephen Wadsworth:

"The House of Atreus has been part of my conscious life as long as I can remember, because of unfortunate similarities between that family and my own," Wadsworth says. "Some of us have had traumatic experiences in childhood; some of us have had more normal lives. But open the door on any family closet and you find tensions that are hard to bear."

It is not only the story of the opera that moves Wadsworth; it is the music, which "touches us in 100 ways." He devises action based on the structure of the music — action that is "a kind of constant forward-moving flow that bleeds into an aria. It's a very deeply satisfying thing. If I can help people hear music by landing the action on it, the audience will be able to hear the music better. That has always informed my work."

Operagoers will not have to suspend disbelief too far with this show; Wadsworth calls the cast "physically exquisite," with a lineup of young singing actors headed by Nuccia Focile, Brett Polegato and William Burden (all well-known to Seattle Opera audiences). Does Wadsworth have any suggestions for audience members who want to prepare before attending "Iphigenia in Tauris"?

"When you're at the opera, it should be very clear what is going on; you don't need to prepare to go see a film," he says. "But if you want backstory, just Google 'House of Atreus' and you'll find everything you need to know."

What the Heck?

Another quickie:  What do you know?  There's a music group in Los Angeles called "Hecuba."  Not sure what the connection to the Queen of Troy is, but this review posted on the MySpace page seems to be trying to make impressionistic connections:

Hecuba opens your eyes, literally and emotionally. The songs are stories of sadness and the most innocent joy. Hecuba is an experience created through epic sounds that take cues from middle-eastern lyrical cadence to hip hop hip shaking. This uncategorizable band belongs to museums, to happenings, to clubs, and to theaters; it is familiar as the past but takes you into the future.

They are performers in a true sense, breaking boundaries and transplanting the audience to a comfortable yet bizarre space where one cannot be sure whether they should be dancing or waxing poetic over a past life on Mythos.

I was shocked, and in this day and age it's damn hard to be shocked. Isabelle Albuquerque's vocals have a dynamic range as grand as the Alps and her body moves as if she was possessed by the goddess of music.

Jammin', Old School

Among the musical premières announced by Boosey & Hawkes for this season is the (please agree with me!) ghastly-named TroyJam, composed by Michael Daugherty, "inspired by the Trojan War battle between Achilles and Hector" - to be performed in May at the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) by the National Symphony Orchestra in their Family Series.  Family Series?!  This, I assume by the way, would be the "DAUGHERTY - to be announced" at the NSO's website.