The Oresteia

By: Aeschylus, Yuri Rasovsky - adaptation from translation, Ian Johnston - translator

Narrated by: full cast

In The Oresteia, Aeschylus dramatizes the myth of the curse on the royal house of Argos. The action begins when King Agamemnon returns victorious from the Trojan War, only to be treacherously slain by his own wife. It ends with the trial of their son, Orestes, who slew his mother to avenge her treachery - a trial with the goddess Athena as judge, the god Apollo as defense attorney, and, as prosecutors, relentless avenging demons called The Furies. The results of the trial change the nature of divine and human justice forever.

An adaptation by Yuri Rasovsky, based on a translation by Ian Johnston.

Also included is an excerpt from Blackstone's dramatization of The Odyssey, in which Agamemnon's brother Menelaus learns of the events of The Oresteia from Proteus, the sea god.

(P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Great production, Ian Johnston translation

This production is based on the Ian Johnston translation and is produced by Yuri Rasovsky. I'm partial to Johnston's work: he also did the outstanding verse translations of Homer recently recorded by Naxos (and available on Audible). This is more than a simple "staged reading." Rasovsky, an old hand at audio theater, pulls out the stops: music and sound effects are used throughout, and I found the choruses, always a dilemma in modern stagings of Greek drama, especially effective. (Oh, and the acting is pretty good too!) Well done, moving, and consistently interesting.

I felt as if I was in Ancient Greece

Very realistic. Good portrait of theater at that time. Enjoyed it and would recommend it.

The Greek tragedies ALWAYS deserve a place in everyone's heart

(As posted in GoodReads)
I first read the stories in college (40 years ago). I am sure that it was a different translation, but it still get shivers when I hear the stories. I know that it's a very old tale, and there's nothing particularly special about it, but the whole feeling of the Greek tragedies is everlasting. I'm not use to the "chorus" being anything but read by myself, but I really liked the treatment of several voices together reading the parts of the Greek chorus. It made for a great afternoon!

Nicely done

This is a very good reading of the plays - the director uses lots of music and sound to the reading to give it the feeling of a full performance. The translation is engaging and contemporary. Some of the actors are a bit hammy and seem to enjoy the sound of their own voices too much, but otherwise this does a great job of communicating the power of the plays.

Real Classic

This is a classic, very very old and in a style that I'm just not in love with. This is a good read if you are looking to read some of the first epic poetic mythology plays.