Evolution
The story, characters, and music of Paradise Lost have evolved greatly from inception to present day.
February 11, 2003: Every morning, Extasis would read from the Book of Light to the other angels, retelling the story of Creation in the multi-movement piece "Genesis." A God-like character was referenced but never seen, the omniscient "One." Her brother Logos is charged with keeping order amongst the angels, and does so through routine and discipline. He sings the "This Is The Way" aria. Extasis is free-willed and passionate, and defies her brother Logos, who banishes her and her horse to the wilderness. . Here she sings the "Butterflies" aria, which includes a high F#, Whitacre's wink at the Magic Flute. Inspired and incensed, Extasis raises an army of angels and leads them back to Paradise for "War." In the culminating battle, Logos accidentally stabs Extasis, and she dies in his arms. At one point in the story, the Choir of Angels performed a version of Lux Aurumque with modified lyrics.
The Carnegie Hall performance on June 15, 2010 included a greatly altered story (Logos and Extasis are now lovers, not brother and sister, more choral singing, and was produced as a one act concert).
Read more about this topic: Paradise Lost: Shadows And Wings
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
“Like Freud, Jung believes that the human mind contains archaic remnants, residues of the long history and evolution of mankind. In the unconscious, primordial “universally human images” lie dormant. Those primordial images are the most ancient, universal and “deep” thoughts of mankind. Since they embody feelings as much as thought, they are properly “thought feelings.” Where Freud postulates a mass psyche, Jung postulates a collective psyche.”
—Patrick Mullahy (b. 1912)
“What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.”
—Mario Puzo (b. 1920)
“By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature—for instance in a biological survey of evolution—we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.”
—Owen Barfield (b. 1898)