Beaming with joy

"Orpheus' Comet" by the Bulgarian-English composer Dobrinka Tabakova is a homage to Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo" and the Orpheus myth in general. At first, a buzzing swarm of bees appears to be circling the orchestra—an allusion to the beekeeper Aristaeus, who (according to the myth) was responsible for the death of Orpheus's lover, Eurydice. Gradually, solemn melodies emerge, and at the end, the (slightly altered) opening hymn from "L'Orfeo" res...