“Mirrors are the doors through which Death comes; look long enough in a mirror and you will see Death at work.” Orpheus a 1950 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. It is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950), and Testament of Orpheus (1960). Over the course of thirty years, [...]
Tag: Eurydice
Rainer Marie Rilke | Sonnets to Orpheus
1-5. Erect no monument. Allow the rose to unfurl each year on his behalf. For it's Orpheus. His metamorphosis in this, in that. We needn't bother with other names. Once and forever it's Orpheus, when there's song. He comes and goes. Isn't it grace enough when now and then he stays on a few days, [...]
Igor Stravinsky | Orpheus
"In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?" Igor Stravinsky Orpheus was the brain-child of Lincoln Kirstein who specifically wanted a companion-piece for Apollo to grace the second season of his new venture, Ballet Society. Stravinsky was not normally responsive to being told what sort of music [...]
Orpheus and Eurydice in Art
"'Where does our story take place, and when?' asked Cocteau at the start of Orphée. 'It's the privilege of legends to be ageless. Comme il vous plaira. As you please.” Ann Wroe, Orpheus: The Song of Life (Painting : Edward John Poynter, Orpheus and Eurydice) In the upcoming weeks, I will be studying the myth of Orpheus [...]
Ingeborg Bachmann | Dire l’obscur
“Et je ne t'appartiens pas.Tous deux à présent nous nous plaignons.” Dire l'obscur Comme Orphée je joue sur les cordes de la vie la mort et de la beauté de la terre et de tes yeux qui règnent sur le ciel je ne sais dire que de l'obscur. N'oublie pas que toi aussi, soudain, ce [...]