I caught the U.S. premiere of Iannis Xenakis' Oresteia last night up at the Miller Theatre, in a performance by the International Contemporary Ensemble and a mixed chorus of men and women and children. A group of six dancers provided visual stimuli, as did a slowly morphing projection of a bloodshot eye.
The Oresteia – a trilogy of plays written by Aeschylus in the Fifth century B.C. – is the archetypal Greek drama, a bloody mixture of adultery, murder and vengeance. Xenakis' dissonant, disturbing score is dominated by heavy percussion (supplied here by David Schotzko) and a bass singing falsetto (Wilbur Pauley), mirroring the horror of the story. The final scene, in the Temple at Delphi, had the cast singing and blowing whistles that rose to a piercing, shrieking climax unlike anything I've ever heard.
I can't say I exactly enjoyed Oresteia, but I'm glad I heard it with my own ears.