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Cathedral and iOrpheus
From 2000-2013, I was involved in two large scale and somewhat overlapping projects with composer Bill Duckworth and designer/artist Nora Farrell. These were live and on-line interactive performance work in different series with multiple musicians and performeers. I performed as The Chronicler, a storytelling time-traveler, who was present during magical moments in human history, both myth and actual, including the building of the pyramids and the the founding of the WorldWideWeb. I wrote and performed in concerts we did in New York, Tokyo and many other places. The image below is from a Brisbane, Australia as part of a series in 2005 called Orpheus Down Under, which was meant to celebrate five hundredth anniversary of the first opera, by Claudio Monteverdi.
In a paper for a conference, Myth Today, in Istanbul in 2014. I talked about iOrpheus and film, theater and the rock opera, Hadestown. My idea is that there is more to the myth than Orpheus' marriage with Eurydice. He was from Thrace, now Turkey, and found and listened to sound and music throughout his life - and after. Of Orpheus, I said: "His life is an idealization of how music and sonic engagements are possible in a geography of landscapes, seascapes, mountainscapes, as well as with animals and imaginary worlds." I like the opening lines of the paper:
“As long as there is youth and love, fear of death and anger at its finality, as long
as there is music and poetry, as long as there are gods with stupid ways of treating
mortals, as long as there are journeys, magic and mystery, and as long as the earth,
sea and animals lend themselves to song, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice
will endlessly seduce and beguile human beings.”
In the end, Orpheus is, in some sense, a precursor to John Cage and R. Murray Schafer...You can read all about it in: Sabatini, Arthur. “Orpheus in Performance in the 21st Century.” Myths Revisited. Istanbul 2nd International Aksit Gorturk Conference Papers.” 2014. 208-218.