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Happy Mother's Day

Gaia and Medea, they're both mothers.

Gaia has a beautiful yoga practice, she harms not the earth with all of her green tech, and she is vegan to the bone. Gaia is “one of those” mothers--at least that's the modern version.

There are a few archetypes of motherhood in Greek mythology.

One is Gaia, the personification of the earth mother who birthed the titans via Uranus (the sky) and the sea gods via Pontus (the sea), Gaia is the mother of all. Her Roman counterpart is Terra.

There is also a quite different archetype of mother that the Greeks give us.

Medea went ahead and killed her children.

Medea is more like Mommy Dearest. She's one of those Joan Crawford mothers.

Medea assisted Jason in procuring the golden fleece on the grounds that if he succeeded he would make an honest woman of her. He gets the fleece marries Medea and they have two children.

Jason’s wandering heart moves on to the daughter of the king of Corinth. Medea pledges her vengeance which concludes with the murder of her two children by Jason.

Where does classical music fit in to this? Why Cherubini’s opera Medea of course. It was premiered in 1797 and translated from French into Italian in 1802.

In the 1950’s and 60’s the opera was revived by Maria Callas’ performances in Italy. The opera takes liberties with the story, as operas often do, but Medea does kill her children in a temple at the end of the show.

Happy Mother’s Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HTlS0GSn98

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Halloween opera style

Faust is the quintessential example

Gaia has a beautiful yoga practice, she harms not the earth with all of her green tech, and she is vegan to the bone. Gaia is “one of those” mothers--at least that's the modern version.

There are a few archetypes of motherhood in Greek mythology.

One is Gaia, the personification of the earth mother who birthed the titans via Uranus (the sky) and the sea gods via Pontus (the sea), Gaia is the mother of all. Her Roman counterpart is Terra.

There is also a quite different archetype of mother that the Greeks give us.

Medea went ahead and killed her children.

Medea is more like Mommy Dearest. She's one of those Joan Crawford mothers.

Medea assisted Jason in procuring the golden fleece on the grounds that if he succeeded he would make an honest woman of her. He gets the fleece marries Medea and they have two children.

Jason’s wandering heart moves on to the daughter of the king of Corinth. Medea pledges her vengeance which concludes with the murder of her two children by Jason.

Where does classical music fit in to this? Why Cherubini’s opera Medea of course. It was premiered in 1797 and translated from French into Italian in 1802.

In the 1950’s and 60’s the opera was revived by Maria Callas’ performances in Italy. The opera takes liberties with the story, as operas often do, but Medea does kill her children in a temple at the end of the show.

Happy Mother’s Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HTlS0GSn98

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