March 2010

Love And Loss: The Story Of Orpheus And Eurydice In Art And Music

The Farnham Decorative & Fine Arts Society met for their lecture on Tuesday 16 March at the Maltings in Farnham.  Peter Duffy, the Chairman, announced that the April lecture on African Art coincided with the British Museum bronzes exhibition.  Bookings were being taken for the Study Day on The History of Quilts.  He announced that a replacement Press and Publicity Secretary for the Society was needed and requested that anyone interested should contact him.

Lois Oliver, Exhibition Curator at the National Gallery, author, broadcaster and musician, gave a lively and informative talk on Love and Loss:  The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Art and Music.  She centred her talk on three themes:  art, music and myth.

The tragedy of the myth has captured the imagination of artists and musicians since renaissance times.  A brief outline of the myth was given and subsequently related to paintings, excellent slides of which were shown, and operas, highlights of which were played. 

Orpheus was a talented musician, the son of Apollo the God of Music, and Calliope.  His wife, Eurydice, was bitten by a snake trying to escape the attentions of Aristaeus, the beekeeper, and died.  Orpheus, distraught at her death, followed her into the underworld and, by playing music, persuaded Pluto to release her.  Pluto agreed but on condition that Orpheus did not look upon her until they were both out of the underworld.  Orpheus gazed back at her and she was lost to him forever.

A painting by Roelandt Savery showed various aspects of the myth:  Eurydice being pursued by Aristaeus; Eurydice dying from the snake bite; and Orpheus playing his lyre in the background charming the beautifully depicted animals and birds around him.  Another painting showed a sombre vision of the Underworld.  Numerous artists, including Nicholas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, Edward Poynter and George Watts were inspired by the myth of Orpheus.

Extracts of the operas, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, were played.  Three songs from Monteverdi were heard:  the song of Orpheus rejoicing at his wedding, the song he sang to win back Eurydice and the tragic song by Eurydice when she was dying for the second time.  The Gluck opera was written for a very high tenor voice and the sweet song of Orpheus, which allowed him to pass into the underworld, was an example of this.  In both of these operas the tragic ending was changed to please the audience with Orpheus being changed to a star to look down on Eurydice in Monteverdi’s opera and with Eurydice being brought back to life in Gluck’s opera.  Offenbach approached the myth in a light-hearted way and made a mockery of its tragic nature and its most popular piece of music, the Can Can, was played.

The lecture transported the audience into the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and gave an insight to the artists and musicians who had sought to interpret it.

Copy by Maralyn Sharpe