Greek Drama Research Articles

OPERA "CREONT" BY DMYTR BORTNIANSKY: FROM PORTUGAL TO UKRAINE

The article examines the creative activity of the outstanding Ukrainian artist Dmytro Bortnyanskyi as an opera composer. The focus is on the operas of his Italian creative period (1768 - 1779) - Creont (1776, Venice), Alcides (1778, Venice) and Quintus Fabius (1779, Modena). The happy modern stage fate of the opera "Alkid" is indicated, its score was published in Kyiv in 1985. The found manuscript of the score by Dmytro Bortnyansky's first opera "Creont" provides new opportunities for studying the artist's work, this score was considered to be lost for a long time; after establishing the location of the score in one of the archives of the Portuguese city of Lisbon, its copy was brought to Ukraine. The history of transfers of the surviving manuscripts of Dmytro Bortnyanskyi's opera works was studied, in addition, the author analyzes the plot, structure and musical dramaturgy of the opera "Creont". The author uses a combination of scientific methods to achieve the goal of investigation, in particular: the source method — for searching and analyzing contemporary handwritten and printed sources; the historical method — to establish historical and cultural parallels in the study of Dmytro Bortnyanskyi's opera heritage and to outline prospects for further study of the specified issues; theoretical method — for the systematization of musical and stylistic factors of the study of the musical text of the opera "Creont" and the creation of certain generalizations. The study determines the numerical structure of the two-act opera "Creont", the plot of which is based on the tragedy "Antigone" by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. It is noted that the main conflict of Dmitry Bortnyanskyi's opera takes place between the king of Thebes, Creont, and Antigone, the daughter of the deceased king Oedipus (compared to the tragedy of Sophocles, the ending in the opera is changed from tragic to happy — all the characters remain alive, Antigone becomes the queen of Thebes and wins in the confrontation with by Creont). It is emphasized that the preserved score of the opera "Creont" provides grounds for a deeper understanding of Dmytro Bortnyanskyi's opera heritage and the composer's achievements in the genre of Italian opera, and that an important task is the production of this opera in Ukraine, in the composer's homeland

Contemporary Applications of Ancient Greek Drama in the Light of Philosophy

Ancient dramas (tragedies and comedies) by the major representative authors – Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as samples of the greatest artistic expressions of human life, bring together the weaknesses and tensions of human actions in relation with the challenges of life at any historical period or geographical and cultural context.

The vertical axis and the agôn between theatre and philosophy

ABSTRACT This article explores the controversy between ancient Greek dramatists and their fellow philosophers over the vertical axis, with special reference to Socrates. I begin with a discussion of the vertical axis in Greek theatre, and turn to Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus to discuss the vertical as a manifestation of the tragic preference ascribed to our “divine” upper body over our “bestial” lower body. Then, I discuss the deus ex machina as an image of divine vertical intervention in the horizontal human plot, and claim that Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophical critique of this theatrical convention fails to notice that the dramatists made a subversive use of the illogicality of this convention. The second part of the article is dedicated to the vertical as an expression of man’s desire to transcend the boundaries of the human sphere. I discuss the negative treatment of this desire by Greek dramatists, who regard it as an unworthy aspiration, compared to its positive treatment by Greek philosophers, who presents it as a worthy aspiration, since it is only through such an ascent that one can get a glimpse of the eternal. In this context, I examine two representations of Socrates: his deus ex machina appearance in Aristophanes’ Clouds, implying the hubristic stance of philosophers; and his habit of long immobile standings as introduced in Plato’s Symposium, implying the philosophers’ superiority over the dramatists. However, the publicly-visible nature of Socrates’ standstills also turns them into a display of philosophizing, meaning that Socrates of the Symposium is a philosopher who (perhaps unfairly) theatricalizes his verticality so as to challenge the art of theatre.

Shakespeare Tragedy, Comedy and Historical Play

This particular research paper sheds light on common recognizable characteristics of Shakespeare tragedy, comedy and historical play. Shakespeare, the dramatist of all time, brought tragedy and comedy developed by classic Greek dramatists: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes to a new level in the Elizabeth period. Within his theatre life which expands for 22 years, he produced ten tragedies, seventeen comedies and ten historic plays, which are staged with diverse modification all over the world, being translated to almost all the languages that are spoken in very nook and corner in the world. Shakespeare whom quoted next to the Bible is undoubtedly a social reality; his tragedy, comedy and historical plays have become the most timeless and placeless plays which touch the hearts of the audiences irrespective of social political and geographical differences. His tragedy showcases the downfall of the hero/heroine of high socio standing due to a tragic flaw, which finally causes the death of the protagonist either by being killed or committing suicide. His comedy is much more different from one another, although almost all of then end in poetic justice. His historical plays are based on the English history from 12th century to 16th century (from 1399 to 1485) and actual kings who ruled Great Britain in the particular period. However, Shakespeare added more dramatic effects into these historical plays constantly reminding the fact that he is not a historian yet a dramatist.

Acting Gods, Playing Heroes, and the Interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Greek Drama in the Early Common Era By Courtney J. P. Friesen

Acting Gods, Playing Heroes, and the Interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Greek Drama in the Early Common Era By Courtney J. P. Friesen

The Evolution of Female Characters From Antiquity to Modernity: An Examination of Marinna Carr's and Carol Lashof's Adaptations of Classical Mythology

Literature relies heavily on mythology. Myths are stories of deities, monsters or immortals which are transformed from one generation to the other. In addition to documenting the religious and cultural experiences of a specific community, myths also outline the consequent literary, artistic and dramatic customs. Some Greek myths have survived for thousands of years because they accurately depict historical events, cultural values, and trends. Among the most famous classical myths are the myths of Medusa and Medea. As for the myth of Medusa, the earliest known record was found in Theogony (700BC) by Hesiod (8 th-7th century BC). A later version of the Medusa myth was made by the Roman poet Ovid (43BC –17/18AD), in his “Metamorphoses” (3-8 AD). Then again, Medea is a tragedy produced in 431 BC by the Greek playwright Euripides(480–406BC) based on the myth of Jason and Medea. Both Medusa and Medea are among the most fascinating and complex female protagonists in Greek mythology which have captivated many writers and playwrights for ages. In the twentieth century, there were many adaptations of both mythological figures; among these adaptations were those made by contemporary American and Irish women playwrights like Carol Lashof (1956-) and Marinna Carr (1964-). This paper examines the myths of Medusa and Medea and analyses the ways these myths are borrowed, refashioned and exploited in Lashof’s Medusa’s Tale (1991) and Carr’s By the Bog of Cats (1998). Both playwrights explore hidden dimensions of the traditional myths, combining elements from the old and modern worlds.

Ancient tragedy, yet modern music: musical compositions in the classical performances (1921–39)

Abstract This contribution aims to analyse the role of music in the revival of Greek theatre that characterized twentieth-century Italy. In particular, it explores and compares the music composed for INDA productions between 1921 and 1939. From the beginning of the festival, music occupied a crucial role, thanks to Ettore Romagnoli’s emphasis on the musical component in reviving ancient Greek drama. The years from 1921 to 1927 were characterized by the collaboration between Romagnoli and Giuseppe Mulè, who attempted to revive ancient Greek music according to modern criteria. By 1930, the festival, run by an entirely Fascist committee, had taken on a nationalistic character, and music was integral to this. Indeed, during these years (1930–39), music acquired a pivotal role in emphasizing the heroic instances of ancient drama that had become functional to the Regime’s policy. Moreover, it was considered indispensable for this increasingly mass-oriented type of performance.

Ettore Romagnoli, rievocatore of ancient Greek drama

Abstract The Italian classicist Ettore Romagnoli (1871–938) is mostly remembered as a popularizer of ancient drama through his work as a translator for and artistic director of classical performances at the Greek theatre of Syracuse (1914–27). His theatrical productions were inspired by a programmatic aesthetic approach to the study of classical culture called ‘artistic Hellenism’, which aimed at making the Graeco-Roman classics accessible to a broader audience, as well as renewing Italian prose theatre by referring to the example of the ancient chorodidaskalos. This article aims to describe Romagnoli’s attempt to promote his aesthetics in the staging of Greek drama within the cultural framework of Fascism. Even after his dismissal from the artistic direction of the National Institute of Ancient Drama, which he helped to establish in 1925, Romagnoli strove to find the financial support for his project of a ‘Fascist Institute of Classical Drama’. This Institute never became a reality and was probably intended to compete with the classical productions staged at Syracuse, which in the thirties were undergoing a shift in terms of aesthetics and production management according to the new Fascist politics about theatre matters.

Constructing a Hellenic modernism: Aeschylus at the ancient theatre of Syracuse (1914–30)

Abstract This article examines the aesthetic means employed in classical performances produced by the Institute of Ancient Drama (INDA) in Syracuse between 1914 and 1930, with a particular focus on performances of Aeschylus’ tragedies. The first part of this study traces the influences of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century modernist and avant-garde movements on the Syracusan project, including the experiments pioneered by the radical French gauche, the German productions directed by Hans Oberländer with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Mollendorf in the role of dramaturg and translator, as well as Max Reinhardt’s early engagements with ancient Greek drama and his vision of theatre (particularly his Theatre of the Five Thousand). It then discusses the aesthetic trajectory that productions of ancient Greek drama, and more specifically those of Aeschylus’ plays, underwent from INDA’s beginnings in 1914–30, when an all-fascist governing body was installed at its helm.

El espíritu filosófico en el teatro tradicional Chino

Abstract: Chinese drama has its origins in primitive forms of singing and dancing, and has since evolved into a comprehensive art form with a rich history. It is considered one of the three ancient drama cultures, alongside ancient Greek drama and Indian Sanskrit drama. Different nations have different cultures with unique national characteristics, while personalized philosophical concepts play a leading role in the formation of culture. Science, literature, art, education, etc., that belong to the cultural category, are all guided and influenced by philosophical thoughts, and drama art is the same. This article discusses and analyzes the philosophical thoughts behind traditional Chinese drama culture.

The Two-Faced Mirror: The Aristotelian-Hegelian Structure of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

For centuries, classical Greek drama was considered, by playwrights and theorists alike, the greatest influence on the structure of the dramatic text. One of its main features, for example, was the law of three units. Elaborated by Aristotle, the prescriptions oriented the plays to take place in a single place, within twenty-four hours, and exhibit a continuous plot, with a beginning, middle, and end. However, for thinkers such as Hegel, modern drama needed new approaches. In his writings, the German philosopher postulated that modern drama should exhibit narrative speed, and a certain dynamic quality, aligned with the internal and external conflicts of the characters. This article aims at analyzing the way in which Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), balanced both Aristotle and Hegel’s views by engendering a modern text with classical roots, while simultaneously embedding a comedy satirizing the customs of English society.

Vocal Psychotherapy with traumatised Greek clients

The purpose of this article is to describe my personal music therapy journey and my work in Greece with two individuals with psychological trauma, following Austin’s Vocal Psychotherapy model. Vignettes from sessions with two female clients who have experienced trauma are presented and examined through the lens of the theoretical foundations and the approach of this voice-based model of music psychotherapy. I examine trauma, its origins and its connection to the Ancient Greek drama, and how this is reflected in the contemporary Greek family. Trauma symptomatology is then analysed and explored, as well as its implication for dealing with the obstacles that inhibit growth and change. Using two case studies as examples, methods from Vocal Psychotherapy such as “Vocal Holding” and “Free Associative Singing” are presented. The descriptions illustrate the procedure through which the clients gain access to their feelings, memories and sensations so that unconscious material can become conscious and the processing of obstacles can lead to individuation allowing space for their true voice to emerge. Further analysis is done based on countertransference and the ways that I integrate my Greek origins within the Vocal Psychotherapy model.

ჰუბრისის მოტივი კომპარატივისტულ ჭრილში (ანგლოსაქსური „ბეოვულფისა“ და ქართული „ამირანიანის“ მიხედვით)

Despite its diversity and rich tradition, the epic genre is less represented in the Georgian folklore. In Georgian folklore, there is no evidence of a historical epic, there is no clearly defined historical or pseudo-historical hero. In Georgian folklore Amirani belongs to the genre of tragic epic, where the drama of the rise and fall of a man is told by means of heroic-adventure and mythological motifs. Despite the fact that Amiranian is often discussed in relation to the myth of Prometheus, it has much more in common with Greek classical drama than with the myth of Prometheus. "Amiranian", like Greek drama, is built on hubris (Z. Kiknadze 2011). The present article discusses the motif of hubris in a comparative perspective according to the Anglo-Saxon “Beowulf” and the Georgian “Amiraniani”.Every character in epics has his own fate which, however, can be similar to another hero’s fate. He may gain reputation, win or lose, and at last he may fall and die because of hybris. Hybris is the condition which tests the hero and pushes him towards such situations where his heroism is challenged; if he passes successfully through all obstacles, he is a real hero, but if not, he falls and dies. Hybris is indeed some kind of challenge for the hero, and not all heroes can cope with it. It is like a test case on which it depends on how well a hero can face all challenges.The heroic adventures of Beowulf and Amiran belong to different cultures, but both of them were finally formed in the Christian epoch and have many motifs and elements in common. The path of both heroes begins with doing a good deed. They help people and free them from a hard life by protecting them from demonic creatures. However, at some point their strength becomes fatal for them. Step by step, Amiran’s strength loses its meaning. In the beginning, there was no living soul that could defeat him until his tempestuous nature woke up and his desire to fight his own godfather chained him forever to a rock. Beowolf’s goal is to help others. It seems that his only purpose on earth is to live for the sake of others, but when he starts boasting to Unferth about his heroic actions, his fall begins: even though Beowulf can look back on a lot of victories, this will surely bring him to an inevitable defeat. Both heroes have the opportunity to change themselves, but none of them takes this chance. They cannot avoid arrogance, pride and haughtiness. Life gives them hints and lessons that should be a reason of their awakening, but pride has such an impact on these characters that none of them turns out of his way. The godfather provides Amiran with three opportunities to contemplate and come to his senses: in the castle, Hrothgar exhorts Beowulf to avoid a path that is full of glory and wealth because it might end up fatally. Amiran and Beowulf have the opportunity to make a different choice, but one of them wants infinite power and the other is passionate about secret treasures. Both characters ultimately sacrifice themselves to these pursuits in the end. Their ways are the same because hybris always leads to an end. Chart:Common steps in Amiran's and Beowulf's paths: Common features and characteristics of Beowulf and Amiran: Indications of hybris and death due to hybris:

Beyond the Ancient and the Modern: Thinking the Tragic with Williams and Kitto

The philosophy of Bernard Williams, recognised as a prominent expression of ethical thought, presents an intense dialogue with ancient Greek tragic culture. Combining erudition and elegance, Williams evokes Greek tragedies to discuss modern ethical ideas and conceptions. Our article intends to consider Williams’ thought from a cultural point of view: we propose analysing Williams’ cultural methodology, which may be described as a way of thinking beyond the traditional dichotomies between the ancient and the modern, especially concerning the notion of the tragic. Accordingly, we shall examine the affinities between ancient and modern tragic cultures by identifying common narrative and poetical elements. To do so, we shall consider the interpretation of Hamlet, developed by the classicist scholar H.D.F. Kitto. In Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of “Hamlet” (1956), Kitto proposes reading Hamlet in close alliance with Oedipus Tyrannus. Kitto maintains that both tragedies are poetical expressions of a shared tragic element: miasma, or “pollution”, a concept thoroughly treated by Williams in the third chapter of Shame and Necessity. Our article aims to combine Williams’ cultural methodology—we may call it the deconstruction of the repeated theoretical frameworks regarding the differences between the ancient and the modern—and Kitto’s reading of Hamlet in line with Oedipus Tyrannus, which may be understood as an illustration of the persistence of common tragic elements beyond time and the historical separation of cultural periods. Our perspective shall be both cultural and aesthetical.

Sopocles’ Ajax: A Tragedy of Deception

Greek tragedy is a tragedy of fate that brings the downfall of the central figure. Greek playwrights were masters of storytelling and tried to bring purgation of human emotions. Man is indeed responsible for his prosperity and downfall, but no one can deny the role of destiny in man’s life. Sophocles was one of the greatest Greek Playwrights who produced considerable tragedies in Greek literature. Sophocles’ plays were performed on the stage during the ancient time. His most horrible tragedy is Oedipus Rex in which Sophocles presents the cruelty of destiny that brings Oedipus’s downfall. Ajax is a tragedy of the central character Ajax who is presented as a noble warrior in the play but his rivalry with Odysseus for the armour of Achilles invites his downfall. In Ajax, Athena, a Greek goddess is presented as a villain in the play. Athena blurs the vision of Ajax and makes him believe that he has killed his rival Odysseus and Greek leaders but later on, he comes to know that he has killed the innocent cattle under the influence of Athena’s false vision. When Ajax comes to know about his sin, he commits suicide at the end of the play. Athena’s deception brings downfall to Ajax.

How to Live Well: Mimetic Ethics and Civic Education in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity

Mimesis played a crucial role in moral and civic education in Graeco-Roman antiquity. From classical Greek drama to Aristotle to the Graeco-Roman rhetorical traditions, mimetic ethics focuses on how personal example and imitation shaped people’s behaviour and character. Extended contact with the Graeco-Roman traditions led early Christianity to adopt the concept of mimesis in the overlapping spheres of family and education. Discipleship and citizenship intersect in that Christians are called to be good disciples or ‘citizens’ in God’s society. This study explores the Johannine, Pauline, and Petrine traditions and proposes that the mechanism of personal example and imitation regulates the ethical–political life of early Christians and instructs them to live well in both the church and society.

Peculiarities of the mutual influence of Italian and Chinese musical theater tradition in historical development

Statement of the problem. Modern opera performance art in China is closely related to the national theater tradition, which has a thousand-year history. Despite the fact that Italian (and generally European) musical and dramatic art has been known in China for more than a few century, the public did not perceive it for a long time due to significant differences in many aspects: from stage dramaturgy, vocal roles to behavioral norms in the theater institutions. This study draws historical parallels between Italian opera and national Chinese music-theatre art and examines attempts to adapt Italian vocal art to Chinese. Objectives, methods, novelty of the research. In this investigation, we tried to find common and distinctive features in Italian and Chinese musical theater by comparison, as well as to identify the factors that influence the perception of the theater work by the Chinese public. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the path taken to adapt Italian vocal art to the Chinese language, the national musical theater and its audience is analyzed, and the role of tradition in this process. The main research method is comparative, with the help of which the common and distinctive features of Chinese and Italian musical theater are revealed; methods of historical musicology and cultural studies were also used. Research results. The development of Italian and Chinese musical theater in certain historical periods took place in parallel, so they have a number of similar typological features. Both Chinese and Italian theaters synthesize different types of art: singing, ballet, visual series (decoration, costumes), dramatic action. At the same time, they are fundamentally different manifestations of theatrical art. In Chinese opera, the visual component is of great importance – costumes, make-up, decor, etc., and the content and plot vicissitudes are deliberately simplified so that the audience is not distracted, but can enjoy the spectacle. The difference of Chinese opera is circus art: the actors had to have acrobatic and fighting skills and impress the audience with them. In Italian opera at the stage of its formation, the visual series was given great importance, but due to the fact that the authors of the first opera models (Florentines) considered as a model the Greek drama with its idea of moral improvement through catharsis, its dramaturgy is radically different from that of the Chinese theater; therefore, tragedies and dramas were not perceived by the Chinese audience who went to the theater to be entertained and enjoy the skill of the actors. For quite a long period after the penetration of European culture, the Chinese public did not perceive works of Western art, treated them as exotic and often did not understand their essence, aesthetics and value in general. The main obstacle was usually the language, but also the content of the theatrical works of European playwrights, translated into Chinese, did not find a response in the audience, despite the rather significant commonality in plots, themes, and issues. The public did not understand complex ideas that were accompanied by dramatic events or had a tragic ending. Conclusion. Italian and Chinese opera have many common features, but differ in their basis, and the Chinese audience did not perceive Western art for so long because of the fundamental difference in the approach to the visual and content aspects. The originality of Chinese theater drama consists in maximum visualization, which distinguishes it from European drama, in which the content is the basis of the work. The formation of modern opera performing art in China took place in the middle of the 20th century, and this process has a distinctive feature: modern national opera in European traditions was created in order to interest the Chinese public, to draw their attention to the new art. The first example of such an opera (yangban xi) – “The White-Haired Girl “(1945), created by the team of authors of the Academy of Fine Arts named after Lu Xin, became popular among the Chinese, which confirmed the correctness of the creative approach that combined European forms and Chinese performance traditions. In addition, the work was adapted for plastic (ballet), screen and traditional theater (xìqǔ) arts. The appearance of such productions contributed to the fact that the public gradually got used to European opera, and today Chinese opera art is widely represented on the national and world stages. In the years since the appearance of the first Western-style national opera, Chinese singers have mastered various classical vocal styles: Italian bel canto, traditional Chinese singing, Chinese bel canto, and now represent their own national vocal school on world stages.

Античность (Тысячелетие до Рождества Христова). Базис европейской культуры

The essay is devoted to a summary review of the main phenomena of global artistic culture in the Antiquity period (a millennium before the Birth of Christ). The work provides a holistic vision of artistic phenomena. The author consistently examines the achievements of ancient masters in various art forms: literature (the creation of the spiritual foundation of ancient culture in religious canons and national epic), architecture (the appearance of the order in ancient Greek classics), sculpture (as the leading genre of Antiquity), fine art (based on preserved frescoes and mosaics), theatrical art (tragedies of ancient Greek playwrights), poetry (Roman classicism). Attention is also paid to the development of art in line with Hellenism and to the parallels to Greco-Roman Antiquity in the territories of the East. In addition, an overview of the last stage of Antiquity, the Roman stage (the heyday of Roman architecture and sculpture), is given. In conclusion, the author finds that the art phenomena of the period of Antiquity played the most important role as the basis of European culture.

A Century of Scholarly Neglect: Shakespeare and Greek Drama

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of Shakespeare scholars, including Israel Gollancz (1894), H.R.D. Anders (1904), J. Churton Collins (1904), and Gilbert Murray (1914) wrote convincingly of Shakespeare’s debt to classical Greek drama. However, in the century since, most scholars and editors have repeatedly held that Shakespeare was not familiar with Greek drama. In Classical Mythology in Shakespeare (1903), Robert Kilburn Root expressed the opinion on Shakespeare’s ‘lesse Greek’ that presaged this enduring dismissal: “It is at any rate certain that he nowhere alludes to any characters or episodes of Greek drama, that they extended no influence whatsoever on his conception of mythology.” (p. 6) This century-long consensus against Attic dramatic influence was reinforced by A.D. Nutall, who wrote, “that Shakespeare was cut off from Greek poetry and drama is probably a bleak truth that we should accept.” (Nutall, 2004, p.210) Scholars have preferred to maintain that Plutarch or Ovid were Shakespeare’s surrogate literary mediators for the playwright’s adaptations from Greek myth and theatre. Other scholars, however, have questioned these assumptions, including Laurie Maguire, who observed that “invoking Shakespeare’s imagined conversations in the Mermaid tavern is not a methodology likely to convince skeptics that Shakespeare knew Greek drama.” (p. 98) This near-universal rejection of Greek drama as Shakespeare sources have profound philological implications. Indeed, this essay argues that the proscription against recognizing the Attic canon as an influence in Shakespeare has been driven by the belief that Will Shakspere of Stratford had, at most, an education that was Latin-based. The examples show that the real author had to have been exposed to both the Greek language and the Greek dramatists. Evidence for alternative candidates, including Edward de Vere, shows that many were schooled in Greek and that some even collected and supported translations of Greek works. It is my contention that Shakespeare’s dramatic imagination was actually fired by the Greeks, and Shakespeare research has clearly suffered from a century of denial.

Sophocles’ Antigone and Chinese Opera (xiqu): a discussion of hybridized and indigenized adaptations

Abstract Sophocles’ Antigone has been the subject of numerous adaptations. Among these are two xiqu (Chinese opera) adaptations of Antigone, Hebei bangzi (Hebei clapper opera) Thebes City (2002) and jingju (Peking opera) Mingyue and Zihan (2015). This article compares these two works and the different ways that they adapt the text. The first strategy for adaptation is ‘hybridization’ in which the work is adapted and transformed according to local generic conventions and expectations, but a number of foreign elements remain. A second strategy is ‘indigenization’ in which the work is thoroughly assimilated into the local cultural form, and there are effectively no foreign elements. Both these strategies can be observed in looking at these Chinese adaptations of Antigone. After comparative discussion of the two xiqus, the article focuses on Thebes City, looking at the way that it combines the history and culture of ancient China with ancient Greece as well as the way in which it engages with Chinese culture through its depiction of ghosts. This element is singled out because it provides a mature example of hybridization at work. From discussions of these productions of Antigone, three key points emerge. The first is that adaptions of Greek drama in xiqu privilege creativity and performability over fidelity to an original text. The second is that when operatic conventions of xiqu are observed, the work is more likely to succeed. This seems to be the case with the tremendous local success of Thebes City. Thirdly, it is worth observing that the hybridized mode which is adopted in Thebes City is the most difficult to succeed with as it requires balancing diverse elements. Thebes City’s admirable success lies in its ability to achieve ‘harmony in diversity’.