726 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
orchestra is a moving setting of Andromache's farewell to Astyanax from Eu-
ripides' The Trojan Women, in a new translation by John Patrick Creagh. A mes-
senger has come to tell Andromache that she must relinquish her son Astyanax
to the Greeks, who have decided to hurl the boy to his death from the walls of
Troy. Andromache begins with the words, "So you must die, my son."
Barber also has provided Incidental Music for a Scene from Shelley, inspired
by a short passage in Act 2, scene 5, of Prometheus Unbound that calls for music.
One of Barber's greatest works is based on Roman legendary history. Shake-
speare's Anthony and Cleopatra is truly an American opera of stature in the grand
tradition. The first performance (1966) was commissioned for the inauguration
of the new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center. Alvin Ailey was the
choreographer and Franco Zeffirelli the librettist, designer, director, and pro-
ducer; the grandiose vulgarity of his production was in large part responsible
for the initial critical failure of this work. Barber made extensive revisions, along
with his friend Gian Carlo Menotti, who replaced Zeffirelli as the librettist. The
opera was revived with success by the Chicago Lyric Opera and telecast in De-
cember 1991.
Barber's score for Medea, a ballet by Martha Graham, is discussed later in
this chapter.
Works by many other composers are not insignificant. For example, Igor
Stravinsky (1882-1971) was also drawn to classical subjects. His Oedipus Rex is
perhaps his most significant achievement on a classical theme—a highly styl-
ized opera-oratorio, liturgical, ritualistic, and statuesque, composed to a Latin
text provided by Jean Cocteau, who condensed Sophocles' play into six episodes
(Stravinsky gave Cocteau's French version to Jean Danielou to translate into
Church Latin). This ecclesiastical work, in spirit more akin to a Christian moral-
ity play than to ancient Greek drama, is scored for six solo voices, a narrator, a
male chorus, and orchestra; surprisingly enough, many of its musical themes
are adapted from Verdi's Aida.
Stravinsky also composed Persephone (1934). Called a melodrama (i.e., a work
with spoken, not sung, recitative accompanied by instruments), it incorporates
mime, spoken dialogue, dance, and song and utilizes orchestra, narrator, tenor
soloist, chorus, and dance; the text by André Gide is inspired by the Homeric
Hymn to Demeter. There are three sections: Persephone abducted; Persephone in
the Underworld; and Persephone restored.
Stravinsky's collaboration with Balanchine is discussed later in this chapter.
Elliott Carter (b. 1908) gave us Syringa (1978), for mezzo-soprano, bass (or
baritone), guitar, and ten instruments, with text by John Ashbery ("Houseboat ").
This original work is a cantata, chamber opera, polytextual motet, and vocal
double concerto all in one. The music is responsive to Ashbery's modern text—
ironic, campy, and lyrical. His Orpheus becomes a modern poet who despairs
of the futility of his art; the mezzo declaims Ashbery's poetry in a flat, prosaic
manner; the bass-baritone, with intense emotion, intones a collage of classical