Let me tell you about my Yuletide fandom!
Oct. 22nd, 2010 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaOne of my Yuletide fandoms this year is the album "Hadestown" by Anais Mitchell, and I thought I'd tell you why it's so awesome.
It's a "folk opera" that's a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the different roles are sung by different singers. For example, Ani DiFranco is Persephone, and Greg Brown, who has an impressively deep bass voice, is Hades. Both the music and the lyrics are awesome. You can listen to five of the songs over on the artist's Myspace site, and you can find the lyrics here. Also, here's Anais Mitchell writing about the making of "Hadestown".
So why would you want fic for this album instead of for the original story?
Well, the setting is pretty cool. It's set in a post-apocalyptic economic depression era, and it's kind of unclear whether there's actually something mythological/supernatural going on, or whether Hades is just a mine down in the ground. There's also a social element that's not evident in the original myth, and which really intrigues me. Hades (the place) is full of people who are in some sense enslaved/indoctrinated by Hades (the god), but there are signs that this doesn't have to be permanent--Hades is constantly afraid of revolts and riots. For example, he says about Orpheus: Dangerous this jack of hearts/With his kiss the riot starts. I'm also really interested in Persephone's role in this--she seems to provide some comfort to the masses, but is she undermining Hades' rule, or is she just helping to keep them in slavery? Will there be a revolution?
I will leave you with some lyric samples:
How to get to Hadestown
You’ll have to take the long way down
Through the underground, under cover of night
Laying low, staying out of sight
Ain’t no compass, brother, there ain’t no map
Just a telephone wire and the railroad track
Keep on walking and you don’t look back
’til you get to the bottomland
Here's another one, with Persephone comforting the masses:
I don’t know about you, boys
But if you’re like me, then hanging around
This old manhole is bringing you down
Six-feet-under getting under your skin
Cabin fever is a-setting in
You’re stir-crazy! You’re stuck in a rut!
Or you could use a little pick-me-up
I can give you what it is you crave
A little something from the good old days
I got the wind right here in a jar
I got the rain on tap at the bar
I got the sunshine up on the shelf
This song is kind of jazzy and is clearly meant to suggest Persephone operating a speakeasy (there's even the line "a little moonshine ain't no sin", which, I'm not usually fond of puns, but that one is awesome).
It's a "folk opera" that's a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the different roles are sung by different singers. For example, Ani DiFranco is Persephone, and Greg Brown, who has an impressively deep bass voice, is Hades. Both the music and the lyrics are awesome. You can listen to five of the songs over on the artist's Myspace site, and you can find the lyrics here. Also, here's Anais Mitchell writing about the making of "Hadestown".
So why would you want fic for this album instead of for the original story?
Well, the setting is pretty cool. It's set in a post-apocalyptic economic depression era, and it's kind of unclear whether there's actually something mythological/supernatural going on, or whether Hades is just a mine down in the ground. There's also a social element that's not evident in the original myth, and which really intrigues me. Hades (the place) is full of people who are in some sense enslaved/indoctrinated by Hades (the god), but there are signs that this doesn't have to be permanent--Hades is constantly afraid of revolts and riots. For example, he says about Orpheus: Dangerous this jack of hearts/With his kiss the riot starts. I'm also really interested in Persephone's role in this--she seems to provide some comfort to the masses, but is she undermining Hades' rule, or is she just helping to keep them in slavery? Will there be a revolution?
I will leave you with some lyric samples:
How to get to Hadestown
You’ll have to take the long way down
Through the underground, under cover of night
Laying low, staying out of sight
Ain’t no compass, brother, there ain’t no map
Just a telephone wire and the railroad track
Keep on walking and you don’t look back
’til you get to the bottomland
Here's another one, with Persephone comforting the masses:
I don’t know about you, boys
But if you’re like me, then hanging around
This old manhole is bringing you down
Six-feet-under getting under your skin
Cabin fever is a-setting in
You’re stir-crazy! You’re stuck in a rut!
Or you could use a little pick-me-up
I can give you what it is you crave
A little something from the good old days
I got the wind right here in a jar
I got the rain on tap at the bar
I got the sunshine up on the shelf
This song is kind of jazzy and is clearly meant to suggest Persephone operating a speakeasy (there's even the line "a little moonshine ain't no sin", which, I'm not usually fond of puns, but that one is awesome).
