Classical Mythology

734 THE SURVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

the good American that he is, returns home a second time to his beloved Pene-

lope, whom he surprises as she is busily at work in the company of her sew-

ing bee.

In a different vein and musical style is another startlingly original concep-

tion, The Gospel at Colonus (1983), wherein Sophocles' play Oedipus at Colonus is

successfully reinterpreted in the contemporary setting of an American gospel

service. The text (often a close adaptation of the original) by Lee Breuer works

in beautiful collaboration with the idiomatic score by Bob Telson. The agonized

spirituality of the Greek play becomes transformed into a biblical parable of hu-

man fate and divine redemption that finds natural expression in the ecstatic in-

tensity of black religious fervor. Among the many highlights is the incorpora-

tion of the most famous choral ode from Sophocles' Antigone, extolling the

wondrous nature of man.

Ernest Ferlita's Black Medea: A Tangle of Serpents, a play with music and dance,

opened at Audelco's Annual Black Theater Festival at the City University of New

York (1987). More famous is Marie Christine (1998), a musical by composer-

lyricist Michael John LaChiusa and director-choreographer Graciela Daniele, a

quasi-operatic musical version of Medea set in the 1880s amidst the Creole soci-

ety of New Orleans and the corrupt politics of Chicago. The transition of time

and setting does not really work, and the weaknesses in the libretto and disap-

pointing musical score make this Medea a pretty dull evening in the theater.

From reports it would be at least more entertaining, albeit less intellectual,

to be able to see a revival of Home Sweet Homer (1974), a musical based on the

Odyssey. Erich Segal (Love Story) wrote the book, and Mitch Lee (Man of la Man-

cha) wrote the music. It starred Yul Brynner, who toured in it cross-country for

a year before it was scheduled to open on Broadway. Another musical comedy

based on the Odyssey, Fabulous Voyage (1946) by Milton Babbitt, has never been

produced at all, but in 1988 three songs from it were sung at Alice Tully Hall in

New York City.

Finally, those of us who like comedy in music can enjoy the works of Peter

Schickele, (b. 1935), alias P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742)?: a cantata, Iphigenia in Brook-

lyn, and the hilarious Oedipus Tex, set in the Old West. This comic dramatic or-

atorio (1986) was later staged as an opera. Tex shoots some fellows riding on a

rig, solves the riddle posed by Big Foot, and marries Billie Jo Casta. Also funny

is a song by Tom Lehrer, "Oedipus Rex." Lehrer writes both the words and the

music for his humorous songs for voice and piano.

MYTHOLOGY IN DANCE

This brief survey concentrates upon developments in the United States by ma-

jor choreographers, who made a specialty of creating dances on Greek and Ro-

man themes. European antecedents, however, have not been ignored; included

in our listing of works are many of European origin that have been revived and

adapted to become classics throughout the world.