PAUL J

Tonight's performance tells the story of Proserpina in two radically different operatic versions: the first by Karl v. Seckendorff on a text by Goethe (1777), and the second by Paul J. Botelho on the same Goethe text (2016). The German author's text alludes throughout to its source material: ancient Homeric and Ovidian myths of Persephone (Greek) and Proserpina (Roman). The basic outline of the centuries-old story is as follows: Proserpina, teenaged daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, plays with her friends in a field, gathering flowers. Suddenly, a volcano erupts to reveal Pluto, King of Hades, charging toward them with four black horses. Pluto overpowers Proserpina, tearing her away from her friends, fleeing with her on his chariot to his bleak underworld kingdom. She is held against her will, surrounded by souls of the dead, to become Pluto's "wife" and queen of the underworld. There she eats some pomegranate seeds, not realizing that eating the fruit will trap her in Hades forever...

Primary location: Lewisburg United States