Cinematic Signatures of Orpheus and Operatic Evocations

Abstract

Abstract:This paper traces the tradition of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice from Ovid and Vergil through Poliziano to late Renaissance, Baroque, early classical, and early twentieth-century opera as antecedents to Cocteau's Orphée and a number of contemporary films, including Imagining Argentina, Slumdog Millionaire, The City of Your Final Destination, Rabbit Hole, Remember Me, and The Book of Life. Because tragic and non-tragic endings are not reliable identifiers in the Orpheus tradition, the paper focuses on such narrative signatures as retrieval from death, playing a stringed instrument in the face of death, and dying twice.