- Samuel Barber
Medea — Cave of the Heart (1947)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Choreographed by Martha Graham as "Serpent Heart" (1946) and "Cave of the Heart" (1947).
Programme Note
The choreography and music were conceived, as it were, on two time levels, the ancient mythical and the contemporary. Medea and Jason first appear as godlike, super-human figures of the Greek tragedy. As the tension and conflict between them increases, they step out of their legendary roles from lime to time and become the modern man and woman, caught in the nets of jealousy and destructive love; and at the end reassume their mythical quality. In both the dancing and music, archaic and contemporary idioms are used. Medea, in her final scene after the denouement, becomes once more the descendant of the sun.