Word: orpheus
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...mind wanders, but a foot begins to tap, a hand to twitch in time to the music. Rhythm alone, motion for its own sake, take over. And that is the clue to what George Balanchine has done by way of choreography. Unlike his previous "neoclassic" collaborations with Stravinsky (Apollo, Orpheus), this work is abstract dance: there are no costumes or scenery and the Greek title, Agon (contest), does not denote a conflict of plot but simply a sort of dancers' free...
Marcks, seen here through his woodcuts alone, utilizes an almost completely linear approach. The Orpheus and Eurydice series seeks sculptural monumentality through the use of freer, more flexible line than is commonly found in woodcuts. Paradoxically, the "freer" the line attempts to become, the more it appears as the slave of an unconquered medium. Caught between an oddly Germanic type of flowing grace and a more indigenous forcefulness of expression, the product is unresolved. At times, especially in the matter of such problems as the portrayal of facial expressions, Marcks' drawing becomes trivial, often being nothing short of silly. Ironically...
...recordings of Orpheus and Eurydice break with tradition by casting a male singer as Orpheus, normally sung by a contralto. (Gluck himself wrote the role for a male contralto, later rearranged it for tenor in Paris, where castrati singers were frowned upon.) Of the two versions, Epic's (in French) is more authentic historically, but less effective, chiefly because Canadian Tenor Leopold Simoneau's silver-hued voice seems less moving in the role of the suffering Orpheus than the lyric baritone of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, imaginatively cast by Decca in its German-language version. The supporting casts...
Female Lead: Barbara Blaunchard, as Monica in "The Medium"; Jo Linch, as Madame Flora in "The Medium"; Sarah Jane Smith, as Eurydice in "Orpheus...
Male Support: Thomas Beveridge, as Second Chaplain in Mandelbaum's "The Four Chaplains" (Opera Guild); Malcolm Ticknor, as Aristeus-Pluto in "Orpheus...