Desire, deception, and death: Birtwistle’s The Corridor and The Cure
The most interesting thing about The Corridor, in classical terms, is the moment, and mood, that David Harsent (librettist) and Harrison Birtwistle (composer) have chosen to dramatise. So many treatments of this myth in later art focus either on Orpheus’ descent to hell, or the moment when he turns (too soon) and Eurydice is snatched…