Anais Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra

Anais Mitchell

Anais Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra performed a benefit concert for the Long Trail School in Dorset VT on October 1, 2011. The audience was treated to the folk opera in its entiretiy, played in sequence to tell the tail of The Orpheus Myth.

Michael Chorney

 Blogcritics says "It's a musical opera that's unlike any opera you've ever witnessed. It's Indie Rock mixed with Dixieland. It's Homer's Odyssey as performed by Pink Floyd." And Folk and Acoustic Music Review says, "When 98% of what passes as music today lacks even the remotest twinge of an idea, thought, emotion or worse  heart  Hadestown and Anais Mitchell deserve all the listeners and accolades we can give."

Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown tells the story of the ancient Greek myth of the poet Orpheus and his doomed quest to rescue his love Eurydice from the Underworld. But in Mitchell's hands, the familiar saga is reimagined as unfolding in a version of the U.S. that simultaneously evokes our Depression-era past, the current financial disaster (though it was written before the stock market collapse), and a post-apocalyptic future. It's a land where people hide behind walls in a misguided attempt to preserve their "freedom" and protect their riches.

Photos from the performance:
http://smu.gs/qkTBZD


Videos:
When the Chips Are Down