ABSTRACT
Repetition as a means of representing time in new ways is a central concern of The Mask of Orpheus. Just as Act III of Richard Wagner's Siegfried opens with a much more mature music than that which closed Act II, so it is clear that Harrison Birtwistle's musical language has undergone a radical transformation in the six years since he had last worked on the opera. The third Time Shift, which opens the final act, reconsiders the death of Orpheus that occurred at the end of the preceding act and represents his emergence as a puppet, that is, in mythical form. The musical responses have a very clear role in articulating the structure of the act. The most direct connection between the symbolic objects and the sung text is revealed in the six verses of Orpheus' third Song of Magic, though even the connection is grasped with difficulty because the song is sung in Orphic.
