Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus

"The original scenario of the ballet is lost. ... Nevertheless a broad outline of the story can be gathered from a surviving theatre-bill for the first performance at the Hofburgtheater on 28th March 1801: 'The basis of this allegorical ballet is the fable of Prometheus. The Greek philosophers ... depict him as a lofty soul who drove ignorance from the people of his time, and gave them manners, customs, and morals. As the result of this conception, two statues that have been brought to life are introduced ... and these, through the power of harmony, are made sensitive to the passions of human life. Prometheus leads them to Mount Parnassus in order that Apollo, the deity of the arts, may instruct them. Apollo gives them as teachers Amphion, Arion and Orpheus to instruct them in music; Melpomene to teach them tragedy; Thalia, comedy; Terpsichore and Pan, the latest Shepherd's Dance which the latter has invented, and Bacchus, the Heroic Dance of which he was the originator'" (CD notes by Ates Orga).
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