Orpheus Portrait

Music: Franz Liszt (Orpheus, 1854)
Choreography: Kent Stowell
Scenic Design: Charlene Hall, revised 1999
Costume Design: Larae Theige Hascall
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Duration: 14 minutes
Premiere: February 7, 1990; Pacific Northwest Ballet

Kent Stowell choreographed Orpheus Portrait in 1990. A pas de deux, it is set to a tone poem by Franz Lizst (Orpheus, 1854). Taking his inspiration from the music, Stowell approaches the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as Liszt did—through an impressionistic sketch that dramatizes what for composer and choreographer are the most compelling events in the tragic lovers’ lives.

In the ballet’s first section, Stowell’s focus is the passionate and poignant relationship between Orpheus and his wife Eurydice that is ruptured by her death. The second section begins as Orpheus, followed by Eurydice, leads them both from the underworld, to which he has traveled to bargain for her life. Here, Stowell concentrates on the moment when Orpheus, unable to keep his promise of not looking on his beloved until they are safely back in the sunlight of the mortal world, turns to gaze at her, only to watch her depart forever.

When Orpheus Portrait was first performed, massive photographs by Marsha Burns were projected on a scrim behind the dancers. For the 1999 revival, PNB scenic artist Charlene Hall designed a montage of sculpted figures from the classical period that reinforces the eternal human tragedy at the heart of the ballet.

Notes by Jeanie Thomas; edited by Doug Fullington, 2009.