Persephone CCS

Persephone utilizes fresh, innovative arrangements of classics of the repertoire to retell the story of the beautiful daughter of the goddess Demeter, whose abduction by the god of the underworld results in the cold and death of winter, and whose return results in the rebirth of spring. The show opens with a light, fresh musical and visual tone evocative of spring and youth, but quickly darkens as the melodic motifs of Night on Bald Mountain suggest the encroachment of darkness on the scene, culminating in Persephone’s abduction. The second movement is somber, suggesting the fall of winter, but ultimately resilient as expressed by Holst’s Jupiter. Finally, the closer presents the conflict of light and dark before Persephone’s triumphant return as a queen, and with her the rebirth of spring.