Euridice – Szenen aus der Unterwelt (2001/2002)
for 1 dancing vocalist, 3 singers/narrators, dancers, bass flute, double bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, double bass, piano/keyboard, percussion and electronics
Text: Karin Spielhofer
Duration: 55 min.
Composition commissioned by the Bielefeld Theatre, series 'visible music'
WP: 20.09.2002, Theatre BielefeldAnna Clementi, Sonja Heiermann, Simone Tschöke, Stefanie Hanf,
Oh-Ton Ensemble, dancers from the Bielefeld Theatre
Production: Michael Hirsch
Dramaturgy: Roland Quitt
Performance material available from Boosey & Hawkes
From the programme booklet
The idea of writing the whole Orpheus story from Euridice's perspective came to me a long time ago. I have always found it interesting that the marvellous song of Orpheus (and the supposedly first 'real' opera) is linked to the disappearance, to the double death of the female protagonist and that in the various stories and interpretations of the myth we hardly learn anything about Euridice.
According to tradition, Euridice was bitten by a snake shortly before her wedding and taken to the underworld (a trivialising description of her rape by the bee god Aristeos). When Orpheus wants to bring her back to earth and turns to her against the commandment of the gods, he banishes her to the underworld forever with his gaze.
But who is Euridice there, in this unlikely place? In none of the various stories and interpretations of the myth of Orpheus do we learn anything about her existence, about her fate there. Is she still a human being, still a woman? Does she still have her beautiful body, her own movements and gestures, the melodiousness of her voice, a language? What does she feel? What does she look at? What does she see? And how could one tell Euridice's story/also her story?
see also Birgit J. Wertenson: Wie geht es eigentlich Eurydike? Eine Mythologie auf Spurensuche: Zu Iris ter Schiphorsts Kammeroper Euridice (2002)
see also Viktoria Macek: Das Prinzip Euridike
I.t.S.
Reviews
Deutschlandfunk, Musikjournal, 23/09/2002, Frank Kämpfer (WDR)
"The voice and voices form the central moment. They whisper and lament, try to find words, remember, reconstruct. Iris ter Schiphorst's chamber opera Eurydice, Scenes from the Underworld rubs up against the myth of silence...The Berlin composer surmises a layer buried in cultural history and enquires into the self-reflection of the woman who from Monteverdi to Gluck has always remained silent....Gestural-dance performance, singing, verbal commentary and instrumental part come together in this work in an eloquent, touching way..."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.09.2002, Wolfgang Sandner
'The Silence of Blessed Masters'/ Scenes from the Underworld: Three Orpheus operas premiered at Bielefeld Theatre
... This is Iris ter Schiphorst's "Eurydice - Scenes from the Underworld" in the theatre at the old market as the opening part (...) but much more memorable in its musical structure and not least more modern in its consistent view of Eurydice, neglected by the myth, than the two following parts of the Orpheus cycle. With a few instrumental serpentine lines from the cello and violin at the beginning, ter Schiphorst succeeds in creating a far more suggestive atmosphere than her composer colleagues are able to do with all their acoustic-visual fuss...
"Eurydike, oder der Topos des Verschwindens, die Komponistin Iris ter Schiphorst im Gespräch mit Frank Kämpfer", Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Mainz), No. 5, 2003
https://musikderzeit.de/artikel/eurydike-oder-der-topos-des-verschwindens/