Thespis, they say, discovered the Tragic Muse,
An unknown form, presenting his plays from carts,
Sung and acted by men, faces smeared with wine-lees. (faecibus)
Aeschylus, after him, introduced masks, fine robes,
Had a modest stage made of planks, and demanded
Sonorous speech, and the effort of wearing buskins.
Old Comedy came next, winning no little praise,
But its freedoms led to excess, to unruliness
Needing legal curb: the law was obeyed, the chorus,
Shamefully, fell silent, losing its rights of attack.
Horace, Ars Poetica
As we discovered reading Horace last year, he's more our contemporary than most. Here, a group of Flamenco dancers, using swarm technology, take a kind of satyr's chorus to the bank.
Reading classical works aloud in Sarasota, and talking about them.
No comments:
Post a Comment