In the early 80s, Lee Breuer had a great idea: what would happen if you took an ancient religious play--say, Oedipus at Colonus--and infused it with a healthy serving of modern religion, southern style? What you get is the curious theatrical concoction, The Gospel at Colonus, in which a fire-and-brimstone Messenger preaches from the pulpit the story of Oedipus, flanked by a gospel choir and fantastically gifted singer-actors. The entire plot--and many of the lyrics--are lifted directly from Sophocles' play, and go a long way towards demonstrating how music was--and is--an important element in the conveying of meaning.
In the clip below, a native of Colonus sings the famous choral passage from Sophokles 670ff. (Below.) Though the translation is different, the passage wonderfully evokes the idyllic qualities of Colonus, and poetically constructs Colonus as the nevernever land where heroes die in mysterious ways. It in, in a world, a blessed place for those about to become olbios. The singer's lulling, hypnotic voice matches perfectly the sentiment of the song: this is a sacred utopia, abudantly fertile, and (like the play itself) full of trilling song.
"Xenos, in this land of fine horses you have come to earth’s fairest home, the shining Colonus. 670 Here the nightingale, a constant guest, trills her clear note under the trees of green glades, dwelling amid the wine-dark ivy 675 and the god’s inviolate foliage, rich in berries and fruit, unvisited by sun, unvexed by the wind of any storm. Here the reveler Dionysus ever walks the ground, 680 companion of the nymphs that nursed him.
And, fed on heavenly dew, the narcissus blooms day by day with its fair clusters; it is the ancient crown of the Great Goddesses. 685 And the crocus blooms with a golden gleam. Nor do the ever-flowing springs diminish, from which the waters of Cephisus wander, and each day with pure 690 current it moves over the plains of the land’s swelling bosom, giving fertilization. Nor have the khoroi of the Muses shunned this place, nor Aphrodite of the golden rein."
