Greek Myths in Opera with Iain Scott

Opera was invented in Florence around 1600 as a Renaissance project to recreate ancient Greek drama – the poetry of which, scholars had concluded, especially in the choral episodes, had probably been chanted or sung. Opera was to be a dramma per musica. Not surprisingly, over the first 200 years of the art-form’s development, the stories of most early operas, were retellings of Greek myths.

Their obvious starting points were the stories of mythology’s first singer, ORPHEUS, and the Olympian God of Music, APOLLO.

But then composers moved on to the rich material of Mycenae’s hero PERSEUS, Thebes’ heroes HERACLES, SEMELE and OEDIPUS, Iolcos’ hero JASON (with MEDEA from Colchis) and Athens’ hero THESEUS (with ARIADNE from Crete), for example.

In the 19^th century, Greek myths were mostly championed by French composers, and the 20^th and current centuries have seen an impressive revival of operas based on Greek sources.

Series:
Oct. 20: Greek Myths in Opera
Oct. 27: The Trojan War in Opera
Nov. 10: Heroes & Quests
Nov. 17: Operas from the Old Testament
Nov. 24: Knights in Shining Armour
Dec. 1: Norse Gods in Opera

**Opera is not included in Classi Membership**