Orpheus (ballet)

Orpheus is a thirty-minute ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky in collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine in Hollywood, California in 1947. The work was commissioned by the Ballet Society, which Balanchine founded together with Lincoln Kirstein and of which he was ballet master. Sets and costumes were created by Isamu Noguchi.

The original cast consisted of 30 dancers: Orpheus; Eurydice; the Dark Angel of Death; Apollo; the leader of the Furies; the leader of the Bacchantes; eight women Bacchantes; nine women in various roles (Friends to Orpheus, Furies, Pluto, Satyr, and Nature Spirits); and seven men as Lost Souls.

The action was divided into three scenes and 12 dance episodes: (Scene One) Orphee; l'Ange de la mort et sa danse; Interlude; (Scene Two) Pas des furies; Air de danse; Interlude; Air de danse conclusion; Pas d'action; (Scene Three) Apostheose d'Orphee.

The premiere took place on April 28, 1948, at City Center of Music and Drama, New York, and directly resulted in City Center's chairman, Morton Baum, inviting Balanchine and Kirstein to establish a resident company. The new company was named (or Ballet Society renamed) New York City Ballet and Balanchine remained its ballet master until his death.

Ballet

Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ (French: [balɛ]) is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art.

Ballet may also refer to a ballet dance work, which consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists. Many classical ballets are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, though there are exceptions to this. Most notably, American choreographer George Balanchine is known for his plotless neoclassical ballets which are often performed in simple leotards and tights without scenery.

Ballet (music)

Ballet as a music form progressed from simply a complement to dance, to a concrete compositional form that often had as much value as the dance that went along with it. The dance form, originating in France during the 17th century, began as a theatrical dance. It was not until the 19th century that ballet gained status as a “classical” form. In ballet, the terms ‘classical’ and ‘romantic’ are chronologically reversed from musical usage. Thus, the 19th century classical period in ballet coincided with the 19th century Romantic era in Music. Ballet music composers from the 17th–19th centuries, including the likes of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, were predominantly in France and Russia. Yet with the increased international notoriety seen in Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, ballet music composition and ballet in general spread across the western world.

History

Until about the second half of the 19th century the role of music in ballet was secondary, with the main emphasis on dance, while music was simply a compilation of danceable tunes. Writing "ballet music" used to be a job for musical craftsmen, rather than for masters. For example, critics of the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky mentioned his writing of ballet music as something demeaning.

Orpheus

Orpheus (/ˈɔːrfiəs, ˈɔːrfjuːs/; Greek: Ὀρφεύς) was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.

For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called "Orphic" mysteries. He was credited with the composition of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of which survives. Shrines containing purported relics of Orpheus were regarded as oracles. Some ancient Greek sources note Orpheus' Thracian origins.

Background

The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus: onomaklyton Orphēn ("Orpheus famous-of-name"). He is not mentioned in Homer or Hesiod. Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception.

Stargate SG-1 (season 7)

Season seven of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on June 13, 2003 on Sci Fi. The seventh season concluded after 22 episodes on March 9, 2004 on British Sky One, which overtook the Sci-Fi Channel in mid-season. The series was developed by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner. Season seven regular cast members include Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, and Don S. Davis.

Production

With "Fallen", Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) rejoins the cast, and Corin Nemec (Jonas Quinn) gets billed as a "Guest Star" (besides "Fallen"/"Homecoming", he would have his only other guest appearance later in "Fallout"). George Touliatos previously played Pyrus, Shyla's father, in "Need." The scenes with the Goa'uld motherships flying in hyperspace are actually stock footage from the Season 2 episode "The Serpent's Lair." Director Martin Wood has a cameo in "Fallen" as the man in the elevator with Jonas at the beginning of the episode. Peter DeLuise, who directed "Fragile Balance", provided the voice of Loki in the same episode. Christopher Heyerdahl, who played Pallan in "Revisions", would later play the recurring characters of Halling and the Wraith 'Todd' on Stargate Atlantis. Peter LaCroix previously played the Ashrak in "In the Line of Duty".

Orpheus (disambiguation)

Orpheus was a legendary figure in Greek mythology, chief among poets and musicians.

Orpheus may also be:

Music and dance

Television and film