Greek chorus
[1] Historically, the chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison, and sometimes wore masks.
They also played a role in the Athenian polis, with members of a chorus forming life-long bonds as they performed this civic duty.
[2] It is thought that choruses had their start in Dionysian dithyrambs, hymns and dances in honor Dionysus, and then other characters began to be incorporated.
[attribution needed] The Greek playwrights of the 5th century paid homage to the chorus' musical and choreographic origins.
[5] All of the extant plays of the ancient Greek theatre include a chorus[6] that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance.
They commented on themes, and, as August Wilhelm Schlegel proposed in the early 19th century to subsequent controversy, demonstrated how the audience might react to the drama.
In the exodus, or the play's final scene, the chorus performs a song imparting some message or moral before exiting.
[12]The chorus represents, on stage, the general population of the particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about individual heroes, gods, and goddesses.
[14] The chorus thus comes not only to represent the hierarchical positioning of the general Greek society at the time, but their text provides insight into political thoughts and ideals.
In reference to Atreus, the text spoken by the chorus oscillates between positive, negative, and neutral connotations; they critique the monarchy, but prescribe necessary points of indifference to the king at hand.
[15] Their text can thus be mined into in order to gain insight into the political and societal situations of the time, with particular obedience to the position of the general member of society.
No record beyond the words of the script has survived to describe what an ancient Greek audience might have seen and heard during a performance of a choral ode, but a study of those words, including etymology and other even more decisive evidence, makes it possible to derive a general idea that a performance of choral ode was a mix of lyric poetry, dancing and singing joined together with drama.
They were not allowed to perform at major events like the City Dionysia, where female characters were instead portrayed by male ensemble members.
The dekatê, or the tenth day after birth where the child is given a name, were generally small-scale events attended by close friends and family.
Greek weddings during the time period featured dancing and singing by both genders, together and separately, but were very different from formal choral performances.
Plutarch and Aristophanes' Lysistrata both refer to women dancing at Kolias in the Classical period, in honour of Demeter and Aphrodite, respectively.
[citation needed] The layout of ancient Greek theatres had an orchestra component, quite literally "dancing space", which were generally flat.
"[24] The idea of the greek chorus as a tactic in musical theatre is significant in winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, A Strange Loop, in which six "Thoughts" follow around the protagonist, Usher, and represent his "perceptions of reality".
[10] Montgomery also argues that Wagner's use of the orchestra is similar to the Greek chorus as both generally conclude the drama of the plot, "bridg[ing] the space from the dramatic action back to every-day life.
"[10] The musical Little Shop of Horrors features a modern version of a Greek Chorus in the form of characters Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon, whose songs provide narration to the play.
