Orpheus: an ancient myth that works well as a rock opera (Category Culture)

I was with my wife in May. rock opera OrpheusAnd that was the case when you accidentally cling to a couple of songs and then you go to a concert. I have a long-standing attachment to ancient Greek myths. As a child, I read a lot of them, especially the stories about Hercules: exploits, monsters, gods, demigods, the strange family conflicts of Olympus and the constant feeling that the hero almost never receives a simple reward for correct behavior.

It’s funny to think that the happy ending was the exception rather than the rule. Someone won, but paid a terrible price. Someone made one mistake and lost everything. Someone got into someone else's divine intrigue, where human desire did not solve much at all. When I was a kid, it didn't bother me. Apparently, the myths were read not as fairy tales about a fair ending, but as stories about choice, fate and consequences.

That's why I matched Orpheus pretty accurately. At first, I didn't come across a poster, but a record:Step into the dark!", "SonandWhatever happens." which came straight to me. I appreciated the tension: darkness, doubt, stubbornness, trying to come to terms with something you don’t actually agree with. After that, I had planned a full-time visit, and we didn’t miss it. On stage, this story gathers much more densely than in individual tracks. Officially, Orpheus is described as a mythological thriller about choice, fate and love, where the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is intertwined with the myth of Persephone's abduction. And live, it really works exactly as an interweaving, not as a school retelling of "the hero descended into the underworld."

What I liked most was that the production didn't try to make the myth comfortable. In it remains the same ancient feeling: even when a person acts out of love, he still goes through a system of forces, contracts, prohibitions and other people's decisions. Orpheus is not just a romantic singer who suffers beautifully. He is a man who takes a step into the darkness and does not fully understand the price that will have to be paid for the very attempt to regain the lost. And it was just atmospheric and cool. The music, the voices, the lights, the hall, the live presence of the actors - all together gave the effect for which it is sometimes worth leaving the "listen to the recording at home" mode and going to the theater. You can catch a song in the record. You get the scale in the room.

Indicative point: right in intermission, I bought tickets for the rock opera Hermes from the same creative team. Not until I get there: the dates are over. trip to Vladivostok. But the fact well describes the impression of “Orpheus”: if at half-time you already buy a ticket for the next story, then the staging has done its job.

I highly recommend this rock opera to visit.

P.S. The attached photo was taken from the official gallery on the website https://orfey-rock.ru/#gallery

#Culture #Theatre #Music #Rock #Mythology