If It's True;
Anaïs Mitchell's music is relatively new to me even though
she's been writing and producing music for quite a while now. I've only
been introduced to a few of her other tracks: The Pursewarden Affair,
Cosmic American and Tailor. Then after researching
and listening to more of her music, I found this album of hers called Hadestown.
Hadestown is a concept album written for a folk-opera based on the
Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice (set in a post-apocalyptic american
depression era), where Orpheus ventures on a quest to rescue his wife,
Eurydice, from the underworld. It was released in 2010 and is her fourth album
out of six others. What caught my attention other than the concept of the album
itself were the other artists that featured in the songs apart from Mitchell herself.
These artists are: Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) as Orpheus,
Ani DiFranco as Persephone, Greg Brown as Hades,
The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller as Hermes and Tanya,
Petra and Rachael Haden as the Fates. The
reason I've chosen the track If It's True, is due to it
being one of the songs sung by Justin Vernon and I am a big fan of his
work from both Bon Iver and Volcano
Choir.
The plot for the folk-opera is slightly
different to the known myth as it is a modernised rendition. Rather than
Eurydice dying and being taken to the underworld, in the folk-opera she goes of
her own accord - seduced by Hades to leave Orpheus and curious about Hadestown
(the underworld). Orpheus follows her, and tries to get her back but is
intercepted by the Fates - so he challenges them. If It's True is
sung from Orpheus's point of view while he is challenging the Fates. In the
original myth, Orpheus is known for his voice and his music, lamenting his love
for Eurydice into beautiful odes that swayed even the Gods - so much so that
when he was killed at the end the Muses decided to keep his head among the
living so that he can sing for them forever, enchanting everyone with his
voice. So when he is challenging the Fates, he sings: "If it's true
what they say, if my love is gone for good, they can take this heart away, they
can take this flesh and blood", he sings longing that Eurydice
isn't lost forever and that Hades will hear him and let her go. If
It's True is a beautiful song and this high standard of musicality
runs consistently through the album.
When I was searching for the album, I realised
that it is one of her albums that isn’t on Spotify (including Child
Ballads) but from this I found that Mitchell has
re-recorded her own renditions of some of the pieces on her most recent
album, Xoa - a compilation of new, old and previously
unrecorded works. Xoa features a few of the songs from Hadestown including If
It’s True - Our Lady Of The Underground, Why We Build The
Wall and His Kiss, The Riot.
There is a lot in this album and opera that I
haven’t covered and in the near future I will probably cover in another post
about the entire album and score. If you haven’t previously listened to Anaïs
Mitchell, you should definitely have a listen to her work.
If It's True (Justin Vernon)
If It's True (Anais Mitchell)
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