Towards a production of Euripides ‘Helen’
By Inga Mantle, Associate Lecturer in Region 11 In May 2011 I took part in a reading of Euripides ‘Helen’ with the local branch of the Classical Association of Scotland. I read Helen’s part, including the best bit, the dialogue where she is reunited with Menelaus. I thought it was just tremendous, especially the contrast between Helen’s drama-queen passion and Menelaus’ pomposity and stuffiness. The play in general is really interesting because although it is formally a tragedy, and does indeed deal with serious issues such as the futile destructiveness of war and the problem of the distinction between illusion and reality, it would perhaps be classed as a romantic comedy or even a melodrama nowadays. ‘This play really ought to be put on,’ I thought. I mentioned it to a few friends, who regarded me with blank incomprehension. Nevertheless, ‘I’d really like to put it on,’ I thought; then, ‘It’s not going to happen unless I actually start making it
Red figure Attic vase from the Louvre depicting Helen and Menelaus.
happen.’ Thus began two years of striving. As both a tutor in Latin and Greek, in particular on A275 with its concentration on Greek drama, and also as a singer in amateur opera, I am very interested in the chorus and its music. I wanted the choral odes and other sections which would originally have been sung and danced to be in fact sung and danced by a full chorus of fifteen people. I was weary of productions where the chorus was reduced to, for example, one old woman, or a silent workman (as in a recent production of ‘Medea’ in Glasgow). It would be interesting, I thought, for the audience to experience something closer, in this way at least, to an Athenian production. There was a problem, however: I had to find a composer brave enough and interested enough to write music in a Greek style. I asked David Creese of Newcastle, an expert on ancient Greek music, but although he was intrigued he did not have time. In the end I did find someone, a local composer, who was willing to read large parts of West’s
Poster advertising the play-reading in Greek of Euripides ‘Helen’ with the Classical Association of Scotland Edinburgh & SE branch.
book on Greek music and to have a go. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, my composer managed to write the music for only one choral ode. So my problem remained. Having failed to find another composer I was forced to try my hand at composing myself, first of all adapting one or two pieces of Greek music that are extant, such as, for example, one of the Delphic Hymns to Apollo, and then branching out into my own compositions. The most fascinating part was dealing with the reunion of Helen and Menelaus. After consulting a number of commentaries on ‘Helen’ and the translator’s preface in Diane Arnson Svarlien’s translation of ‘Medea’ I was able to work out which bits were spoken, which chanted, and which sung (the passionate bits), and to set them to music accordingly. (No prizes for guessing that Menelaus’ bits are mostly spoken and Helen’s mostly sung!) Helen also has quite extensive passages to sing during the first entry of the chorus (the parodos) and in the following duet with the chorus. Of course, before any music could be written I had to decide on a translation, and after trying out several I settled on the poetic version of James Michie and Colin Leach. I had found a director who was willing to try out what was in fact something quite new to
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