Summary
Richard Strauss' Daphne, which opens Saturday, July 14, at the Santa Fe Opera, is one of many operas rooted in Greek mythology. For inspiration, Strauss and librettist Josef Gregor went to a story in Ovid's Metamorphoses wherein Daphne, pursued by the sun god Apollo, is turned into a laurel tree by her father, Peneus, a river god.
The ancient Greeks had an easygoing view of their gods. The immortals lived on Mount Olympus, supped on nectar and ambrosia, and dispensed divine judgment, but they also indulged in love, lust, slaughter, envy, pity, revenge, gratitude, and jealousy -- just like human beings. Satisfying these desires often required a change of physical form, especially when it concerned the king of all gods, Zeus (Jupiter to the Romans), and his lovemaking with human girls.See the full content of this document
Extract
Myth-Taken Identity
Zeus became a bull to carry off Europa, turned into a shower of gold to reach Danae in her locked tower, and descended on Leda as a swan. He took on a human form to woo Semele and assumed the likene...
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