Seventh candle, eleven years in
Tonight all was calm again and the candles stood up without a fight. However, it was late again and I did not sing. This makes it all a lot easier at the moment.
Today, I went to the Met Live in HD “Eurydice.” I was hoping for creative stimulation (which I got). Jakub Josef Orliński was a revelation. It’s a strong opera (although it bugs me that Eurydice gets memorable words, but not the stirring music that the other characters are scored for). You don’t exactly enjoy a piece like this, but it was much more emotionally (as opposed to intellectually) moving than I had anticipated.
But maybe I didn’t need to see exactly that, today. In this version of the story, Eurydice goes to the Underworld because her dead father writes her a letter about how lonely he is. And when Orpheus’ plan fails, she returns to her father, who has submerged himself in the river an additional time to be sure he won’t remember her. Yeesh. I really felt rubbed raw afterwards.
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Earlier seventh nights: In 2010, I wrote about Judith and Holofernes. In 2013, I was busy.
Me + Richard Armitage 
Not that I know the story of Eurydice beyond very general summaries but wow, brave thing to be watching now for you. Could be cathartic too.
A few weeks after my dad passed I went to see Branagh’s Cinderella at the cinema, hoping it would cheer me up but it had one mother and two dads dying in it and I was a mess…
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Usually it’s “Orpheus” and it’s about the fact that he, a musician, is willing to pursue his wife into Hades. However, he’s informed he can only rescue her if he walks out without looking back at her. He fails at this and she’s sent back herself. (That’s the basic outline of the myth.)
The author of the book of this opera (Sara Ruhl) is a Pulitzer Prize winning dramatist and she apparently wrote the play, which was structured as Eurydice’s perspective on the story, at the basis of this opera right after her father died, and she said “this was a way for her to have more conversations with her father.” I didn’t know that before I bought the ticket. Ah well.
I think now if you and I wrote a grief handbook together maybe we’d have as one of the suggestions: “don’t watch drama about dying parents during initial phases of bereavement.”
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Yes, that would be definite wise advice!
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Interesting, about the singing. This is the first year I’ve actively listened to and sung along with Christmas music since my mom died in 2014. So far, only in my car and the old version of Home for the Holidays by Perry Como caught me off guard and brought the tears. Perhaps I’m getting past being angry with her? Breathing. Yeah, I better blog about that.
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Breathing would be a good thing to blog about. (I sympathize, I’ve had to do a fair amount of that this year, too.)
In general I’ve had a hard time listening to music for quiet a while now. I’d have to want to listen to something that I don’t concretely associate particular memories with, and that’s hard.
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Ditto, music I loved is a major trigger as I shared 99% of my tastes with mum. And my friend who died right before her. Most stuff still rubs me raw inside and a refuge has pretty much become unbearable… not sure if it will ever change or how.
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add that to the list of “things we don’t yet know about grief processing”
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Yes, I understand. I often wonder if my newfound love of Kpop is because it belongs only to me and my youngers. No memory to taint it.
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I did buy a new CD this summer (heard the band on GMA and thought “huh”) but I actually haven’t had the opportunity to listen to it. LOL.
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You’ve had a bit going on. It’ll wait for you.
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Let’s hope.
I feel like audio CD is a technology that isn’t going to just disappear. There’s still way too much media / people who use that media for that to happen. It’s not going to be like BetaMax or laser discs or whatever.
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BetaMax😂 Whew, the way-back machine!
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and wow, Perry Como! (Our parents must have been in the same generation.)
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Ha ha. We had records of those old Christmas collection albums. My parents both loved music.
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Sheesh on the Euridice. I actually saw a modern version of the old Monteverdi one with modern dance included and lots of chorus. Fantastic. Don’t think this one would have been my thing either…
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It was very inventive, but you can kind of tell that the composer isn’t very mature. He’s a young genius and he has a lot to say but if this work is an indication, he’s trying to say too much of it at once.
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