Tell me, Muse, of the beloved son of Hermes, capriped, two-horned,
lover of hustle and bustle, who frequents valleys populated by trees
with the nymphs accustomed to dances;
which tread the tops of steep
rocks
invoking
Bread
[…]
«Hymn to Pan», Homer.
The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra On Friday, February 24, the institution presented a single performance of the musical drama “Pan,” which was written by Brazilian composer Marcos Balter especially for Claire Chase, a flutist and collaborating partner of the institution.
Over the course of an hour and a half, flutist Claire Chase, described by The New York Times As "the pole star of the ever-expanding universe of his instrument," he performed between the audience and two stages arranged so that his attire, which emulated the tail of the only Greek god who is half man and half goat, could move freely throughout space.
The work that narrates the erratic personality of the Greek god Pan was performed at the San Francisco Symphony's SoundBox and performed in six acts by Claire Chase as solo flute, alternating her performance with the transverse flute "the piccolo" and the contrabass flute in order to represent the mood changes of the mythological character in the story.
The staging included touches of electronic music, as well as a choir and performances by community institutions such as the Amateur Music Network, Casa Círculo Cultural, Openhouse, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Stanford University School of Music in San Francisco.
In addition to the music, giant screens were included where the god, associated with nomadism and recreator of forest sounds through the instrument to which he is credited with creating it, the flute, was represented with bright red, green, purple and yellow colours, the touches of his complex personality.
The Arcadian god and later Greek god: Pan, was associated by Homer in the 4th century BC with the god Dionysus due to certain characteristics that both deities share, such as arousing uncontrollable desire among men to the point of making them go mad, among other things, with love.
This association made by the Greek poet is found within the composition of the Homeric Hymn to Pan, which highlights Dionysus' joy at welcoming the newly reborn Pan to Olympus.
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