The Creation of the World

"The Creation of the World" The Creation of the World is a retelling of Yoruban creation mythology set to Darius Milhaud's jazz ballet "La Creation du Monde." Featuring huge-scale shadow puppets, a narrator, and an Afro-Brazilian dancer. During the production, a Yoruban "orisha" (god) creates land, animals and humans. These opening acts of creation, performed by a dancer and puppets, are set to long, legato lines of music featuring soulful saxophones. Later, the humans become greedy, mean and disrespectful of the earth. Then, the music is cacophonous; the instruments collide. But one caring woman named Ogidan, whose character is "strong as a leopard," turns things around with the help of Oshun, orisha of the rivers. The piece concludes with a lovely, sweetly gentle theme.

The Creation of the World was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Little Orchestra Society of New York; it premiered at Avery Fisher Hall in October 1993, and appeared in the 1993-94 season with each of the commissioning orchestras.