music        news/events        bio        contact        recordings Bull Dancer 1997 2 flutes 1º doubling piccolo 2 oboes 2º doubling english horn 2 clarinets 2º doubling bass clarinet 4 horns 2 trumpets 3 trombones tuba piano doubling celeste harp 2 percussion   1: chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, gong, snare drum, 3 suspended cymbals, tambourine,      tenor drum, 6 tom-toms, triangle, 3 woodblocks, xylophone   2: bass drum, 3 bongos, cuica, sistrum, sizzle cymbals, small ratchet, tam-tam, temple block,       triangle, vibraphone  timpani strings duration 32' commissioned by The Boston Ballet PROGRAM NOTE Theseus and Ariadne and the slaying of the Minotaur: 'When the war (between Crete and Athens) dragged on, Minos (King of Crete) prayed to Zeus to avenge him on the Athenians, and plague and famine struck the city. The Athenians consulted the oracle, which replied that if they wanted the calamities to cease they would have to concede to Minos' demand of an annual tribute of seven girls and seven young men to be handed over as food for the Minotaur. . . (The Minotaur was) a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. . . he was the son of Pasiphæ, the wife of Minos, and of the bull sent to Minos by (the god) Poseidon. Minos commissioned Dædalus, who was then at his court, to build a vast palace [the Labyrinth] comprising such a maze of rooms and corridors that only the architect could find his way. Minos shut the monster in the Labyrinth. . . When the time came to provide this tribute for the third time, the Athenians began to murmur against Aegeus (King of Athens). Theseus (Aegeus' son) then offered himself as one of the victims to be sent to Crete. . . On his departure, Theseus received two sets of sails for the boat from his father, one black, one white. The black sails were for the outward journey and symbolized its funereal nature, but in the hope that the return journey would be a joyful one, Aegeus provided Theseus with white sails with which to indicate that his mission had been successful. On arriving in Crete, Theseus and his companions were confined in the Minotaur's palace, the Labyrinth. Theseus, however, was glimpsed by Ariadne, one of Minos' daughters; she fell in love with him, and gave him a ball of thread so that he would not lose his way in the Labyrinth. . . After he had killed the Minotaur he sabotaged the Cretan ships so that no attempt could be made to follow him, and set sail at night, accompanied by Ariadne and the young Athenians, who had been saved by his exploit. . . According to the most famous version of the legend, Theseus reached Naxos and put into port there. Ariadne fell asleep, and when she awoke, she was alone. . . while others claim that Dionysus ordered (Theseus) to abandon Ariadne, as he had himself fallen in love with her.' from The Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Pierre Grimal. This ballet elides the abandonment on Naxos for a version which seems truer to the characters: In Mary Renault's The King Must Die Ariadne is depicted as a high-priestess of the mother-goddess whose fate was not to be Theseus wife but to continue as the religious and magical focus for her people. The inevitable outcome is that Theseus and Ariadne will part after the slaying of the Minotaur. Theseus fleeing for Athens, Ariadne remaining in Crete.