6. CHORAL DIALOGUE: “WHO IS THIS MAN?”

Header image: from "The Birth of Gospel," WTTW

Music Score

Audio Sample

Featured Speaker

CHORUS, OEDIPUS, ANTIGONE, EVANGELIST

Reference

FC 92-94: Oedipus to the Chorus in the 1st Choral Dialogue (see below)

Nick Rudall translated "my star was unspeakable" as "my fate...," and pointed that this speaks both to Oedipus' past and future.
"Race" - descend from (Labdacidae was Lauis' father, Oedipus' grandfather)

FC 97: Antigone in SCENE II

"...Crying:" the actual verse is "and she is SMILING now as she comes."

DISCOVER

National Theatre: Modern Interpretations of Greek Chorus

2:40 "In a 'choral ode,' you have different opinions going on, almost like a conversation."

Choral Dialogue vs Choral Poem

From our O@C study guide and explanations of Greek drama structure, we learn that a play has:

Prologue (a monologue or dialogue before the chorus enters, which presents the tragedy's topic) = FC's SCENE I
Parode (the Entrance Ode of the chorus - see more on Ode's structure in Scene 15) = FC's CHORAL DIALOGUE (88-94)
Pairs of Episode & Stasimon (actors perform & chorus respond) = FC's SCENE II thru CHORAL DIALOGUE (163-170)
Exodus (chorus' exit song, the conclusion of catharsis in tragedy, but with a mood of celebration) = FC's COMMENTARY

So for dramatic structure, both CHORAL DIALOGUE and CHORAL POEM/ODE follow a SCENE (Episode). Both mediate audience's response to the acting.

But DIALOGUE involves characters (Oedipus, Antigone, etc.), and POEM/ODE is performed only by the Chorus.

They also differ in contents/tones: speaking vs singing; storytelling vs commentary; individual chorus members vs a unified group chant;...open to our interpretation!

Crying & Laughing

"Between one who laughs and one who weeps there is no difference in the eyes, or mouth, or cheeks, but only in the rigidity of the eyebrows which are drawn together by him who weeps and are raised by him who laughs." - Leonardo da Vinci

“Laughing is crying it's the same physical response. It comes from the same places in the nerves. You stimulate a certain nerve, and you don't know if you are going to get a laugh or a sob.” - Lee Breuer

Oedipus' Cursed Backstory:

A Complete Accounting of All Prophecies Delivered by the Oracle of Delphi Concerning the Fate of Oedipus by Emma

Note that previously in OEDIPUS REX (Season 1 of the Trilogy), there was no mention of a "resting place."

"All of the three prophecies dictate events that happen before the beginning of the play. From the moment the Priest of Zeus invokes Oedipus on the steps of the Kadmea, all actions taken by characters are their own, ungoverned by prophecy. Delphi does not foresee Oedipus’ search for the killer, nor Jocasta’s suicide, nor the self-blinding for which Oedipus is so renowned." - Emma

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