Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Mythology

“Odyssey” Mania is Real!

“Odyssey” mania is real! Here are some souvenirs from a trip to the Princeton Barnes & Noble last week. You’ll note a table devoted to Emily Wilson’s translations of “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” Someone snuck in a copy of the Robert Fagles’ version. He was, after all, born in Philly and served on the Princeton faculty.

Also, an endcap of other “Odyssey” translations from the B&N bargain bin and related mythological material.

And finally, an impressive display of “Odyssey” books and bric-a-brac.

The other photo was taken yesterday at Princeton Public Library. I was amused to find this plug for Matt Damon survival movies in their collection. The internet is alive with debate about which are better, Matt Damon movies in which he is saved, or those in which he saves himself. The man has established quite the interesting subgenre. When we think John Wayne, we think westerns. When we think Errol Flynn, we think swashbucklers. When we think Matt Damon, we think SAVE HIM!

Last night, I revisited Kirk Douglas’ “Ulysses.” It really is ridiculously entertaining for a 1950s sword-and-sandal adaptation – from Italy, no less, with all the actors dubbed! There are few actors anymore who can fill the screen like Douglas and Anthony Quinn (as Antinous), the latter giving a very different interpretation, and on quite a different level, from Robert Pattinson (who, granted, is wholly believable in the new version as a scheming coward).

Off today to Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, to take in a performance of Richard Strauss’ opera “The Egyptian Helen” – about the troubled reconciliation of Helen of Troy and her husband, Menelaus, following the Trojan War. The opera runs through August 2, with a livestream on Friday, July 31, at 4 p.m. Often Bard archives these things online not long after the run, so watch for it, and check out some of their past performances. For more information, visit https://fishercenter.bard.edu/series/the-egyptian-helen/

The Classics are everywhere these days, and I’m riding the wave all the way to Ithaca!

Past Bard operas and related material archived here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfzbP01j_SLj4B4A46l-jLPjzWdSxt_wS

July 26, 2026
Classical Music and Classical Myths Crossword

One of the ways I kept myself entertained during the pandemic was to come up with fifty or so clues on any given subject for a Sunday morning crossword puzzle. It would be something to keep me occupied while walking, doing the dishes, or having a coffee out on the lawn. As a friend of mine once quipped, “Man, you were made for COVID.”

Anyway, the clues are mine, but the grids were generated by a computer program. I would click through a few of them until I got one that seemed passable, although if I were ever to publish them, I would be more thoughtful about how and where the boxes intersect, in order to provide some additional hints about the answers.

Here’s one I put together in August 2020. As an addendum to my weekend of radio shows on Greco-Roman mythological themes, it’s a crossword about Classical myths in classical music.

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the clues, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”
There’s classical, and then there’s “Classical.” Strap on your thinking cap and your goat leggings, and then head on over here:

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.08/1608/16082045.682.html

July 19, 2026
Classical Weekend with Classic Ross Amico

With Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” sailing into theaters today, interest in Classical mythology is renewed. I mean, I think it’s always been a fascination for school children, but thanks to that early inculcation, it remains with us for the rest of our lives – sometimes pushed to the backs of our brains, but who doesn’t remember with affection the Greek heroes, their imposing quests and impossible challenges, the fickle gods, the peculiar trysts, the triumphs and turns of fortune, and perhaps most of all, the grotesque monsters?

“The Odyssey” is an excuse for me to revisit these youthful enthusiasms, as I make Classical mythology the focus of all three of my radio shows this weekend (with air times and streaming information posted below).

First, today, on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a mythological mash-up of music from fantasy films, including selections from “Helen of Troy” (Max Steiner), “Clash of the Titans” (Laurence Rosenthal), “Hercules” (Pino Donaggio), and “Jason and the Argonauts” (Bernard Herrmann).

Then, tomorrow morning on “Sweetness and Light,” it’s an ambrosial assortment of pieces inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice, Daphnis and Chloe, Hercules, and a riot of nymphs, satyrs, and fauns, vividly evoked by Jacques Offenbach, Howard Hanson, Cécile Chaminade, George Frideric Handel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Maurice Ravel.

Finally, indomitable Odysseus makes his belated return from the Trojan War to Ithaca on “The Lost Chord,” in works by Ernst Boehe (“Departure and Shipwreck” from the symphonic cycle “From Odysseus’ Voyages”) and Benjamin Britten (the radio play “The Rescue of Penelope,” narrated with gusto by Dame Janet Baker), on “Home Sweet Homer.”

So much for moderation. Join me for a triple helping of Classical classics. I’ll be stringing my bow and launching arrows down a gallery of axe-heads, in celebration of “The Odyssey,” on “Picture Perfect,” “Sweetness and Light,” and “The Lost Chord” – all three originating from KWAX Classical Oregon!

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Clip and save the start times of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

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IMAGE: “Odysseus and Polyphemus” (1896) by Arnold Böcklin

July 17, 2026
Myths & Movie Music Clash of the Titans

Release the Kraken!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a mythological mash-up, with music from four films inspired by classical myths.

“Helen of Troy” (1956) is based on events recounted in Homer’s “The Iliad.” Like the more recent film “Troy,” this version glosses over any participation by the gods. Could it be their wrath that caused this Robert Wise-directed spectacle to be plagued with difficulties?

Reportedly three people were killed during the making of the film, extras were injured by a runaway chariot, and 80 percent of the two-acre recreation of Troy was burned to the ground by a cigarette. On the bright side, it was Bridgette Bardot’s first film made outside of France, and Rossana Podestà played Helen. A spectacle indeed! Max Steiner provided the lush, romantic score.

“Clash of the Titans” (1981) is not to be confused with the 2010 CGI-fest. This is the real deal, with special effects by legendary stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen.

Just as special is its luxury casting of supporting roles, including Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus, and Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Sian Phillips, and Ursula Andress as fellow Olympians. Burgess Meredith is among the mortals, Flora Robson turns up in one scene as a witch, and Perseus is played by newcomer Harry Hamlin, soon to find fame on television’s “L.A. Law.”

The composer, Laurence Rosenthal, studied at the Eastman School and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He also wrote the music for “Raisin in the Sun,” “The Miracle Worker,” “Becket,” and the 1977 version of “The Island of Dr. Moreau.”

“Clash of the Titans” would be Harryhausen’s final film. Despite flashes of his inimitable brilliance, in sequences like the one involving Medusa, and the creation of something of a cultural icon in the Kraken, the effects came to seem a little too retro in the wake of “Star Wars” and “Superman.” Though a sequel, “Force of the Trojans,” was pitched to M-G-M, it was not to materialize. Harryhausen died in 2013, after a lengthy retirement, at the age of 92.

It would be a crime against peplum to put together a program of this sort without at least a nod to Hercules. The peplum genre originated in Italy with Maciste, a supporting character in the 1914 classic “Cabiria.” So powerful did this strongman prove that he became an industry unto himself. The Maciste craze reached its muscular peak in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. When the films arrived in the United States, in hilariously dubbed versions, the character was invariably renamed Hercules, Samson, Atlas, Goliath, or any other mythological, Biblical, or historical bodybuilder you can think of.

A peplum revival sprang up around “Conan the Barbarian” in the early 1980s. We’ll hear a selection from “Hercules” (1983), starring Lou Ferrigno, television’s Incredible Hulk. The music is by Pino Donaggio.

Finally, we’ll make things right again with an extensive suite from the ultimate Ray Harryhausen mythological playground, “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963). This is the one that features the climactic battle with the skeleton army. The music, by Bernard Herrmann, brilliantly suits the visuals. We’ll hear a superb re-recording of the score on the Intrada label, with the Sinfonia of London conducted by Bruce Broughton.

You won’t want to myth it, no bones about it! It’s a quest for classical mythology this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

July 30, 2022

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