ORFEU: DO MITO GREGO À ROUPAGEM BRASILEIRA QUE DESVIRTUA A MÚSICA NEGRO-AFRICANA

Abstract

: Like many classical works of Ancient Greece, the myth of Orpheus served as a reference for the construction of the Western imaginary, thus generating, among other things, ideas to retell its story, as well as adaptations to the context in which it is intended to be disseminated. This paper aims to approach these adaptations from three axes: (i) to bring the myth of Orpheus to serve as a basis for comparison and discussion; (ii) present the play Orfeu da Conceição, by Vinicius de Moraes (1956); and (iii) to reflect on references of the Brazilian people – here represented by cariocas, that is, black-African influences, discussing the racial and cultural prejudice manifested through Afro-Brazilian music. Based on the assumption that the myth of Orpheus orbits, above all, musicality, it was necessary to evoke this element as a guiding thread of this work.