Hadestown and the Descent into the Underworld

In its adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, Hadestown brings a variety of aesthetic choices to bear on this tale of Orpheus’ unsuccessful, and all-too-human, attempt at harrowing Hades. Guest Richard Strube and host Cindy Collins Smith discuss mythology, metaphysics, and Christ by exploring the play’s musical, visual, thematic, and philosophical choices in a conversation covering literary tragedy, the denial of death, repetition as a form of hope, the power of revision in art, and Hades’ expansion of the Realm of Death.