The public installation and performance consists of two elevated structures architecturally personifying Orpheus and Eurydice of Greek mythology. In the myth, Orpheus, a musician, travels to the underworld to retrieve his wife, the nymph Eurydice. Hades permits Orpheus to return with his wife on the condition that he walk ahead and not look back until they have both exited the underworld. He emerges and looks back before Eurydice crosses over and in doing so loses her forever. The tower representing Orpheus provides a stage for an aria from Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo”. The performer references the myth by facing away from the audience, utilizing a large satellite dish. The parabolic shape of the dish focuses the music and transmits it some 90 feet away to an audience in a pastoral opera box tower, acting as Eurydice.
Collaboration between Yara Travieso
Artist: Brookhart Jonquil
Architect/Artist: Chat Travieso
Singer: Kunya Rowley
Presented by YoungArts and The Dorsch Gallery for ArtLive Miami, 2012.