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Noon Edition

Afterlife Podcast

This week on the Ether Game Weekly Music Quiz Podcast, we're going beyond the grave to look at music about heaven and hell, in a show we're calling "Afterlife"! Can you name this eternal tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, August 14th at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880), Orpheus In The Underworld: Overture ("Infernal Galop")

New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor.

Bernstein Century: Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C Major / Offenbach: Gaîté Parisienne (Sony Classical)

You probably know about the myth of Orpheus. Orpheus was the most gifted musician in Greek mythology, whose wife Eurydice dies and is sent down into the underworld. When the gods hear Orpheus's beautiful song of lament, they offer him a chance to go into the underworld to save her. Except, he can't look at her, or else she'll be stuck in the underworld forever. This myth has been told and retold several times, including in the opera Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the 18th century. Offenbach's absurd retelling of the myth is a parody of Gluck's more serious version. In Offenbach's Orpheus In The Underworld, Orpheus and Eurydice are stuck in an unhappy marriage, and the underworld feels like a step up. Even Jupiter and the rest of gods find the underworld enticing. They eventually leave their dull life on Mount Olympus for a raucous party in hell, accompanied by the "Infernal Galop."

Music Heard On This Episode

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