Hadestown (musical) Hadestown (musical) Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical is a 2016 stage musical adaptation of the 2010 folk opera concept album by the same name by Anaïs Mitchell. It premiered off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop on May 6, 2016 and ran through July 31. The show was developed for the stage and directed by Rachel Chavkin. Like the original concept album, "Hadestown" tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus journeys to the underworld to rescue his fiancée Eurydice. As in the 2010 album, "Hadestown" adapts the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to a
Orpheus "to change allegiance, status, ownership". Cognates could include Greek ὄρφνη ("órphnē") "darkness", and surely Greek ὀρφανός ("orphanós") "fatherless, orphan", from which comes English "orphan" by way of Latin. Fulgentius, a mythographer of the late 5th to early 6th century AD, gave the unlikely etymology meaning "best voice," "Oraia-phonos". The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus: "onomaklyton Orphēn" ("Orpheus famous-of-name"). He is not mentioned in Homer or Hesiod. Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception. Pindar calls Orpheus "the father of songs" and identifies him as a