ABSTRACT
Greek tragedy flourished for less than a century in one city, Athens; since their rediscovery in the Renaissance the surviving dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides have been admired, studied, translated and performed throughout the world. They have also served as an inspiration to creative artists, starting with the inventors of opera, the Camerata in Florence. The achievement of Greek tragedy as a whole – or at least of the most highly acclaimed of the surviving dramas – may usefully be examined within the framework of this concept. A very large number of composers have written operas based on Greek mythology. Each Greek drama has a single plot; there are none of the subplots, love affairs and political intrigues that play a significant part, for example, in French classical tragedy. Finally, Greek – a remarkable piece of what Peter Brook would acclaim as Rough Theatre, in which the Oedipus legend is relocated to London's East End under Margaret Thatcher.
