Abstract
In the history of Cuban theater, the appropriation and the racialization of Orpheus have been shaped by Brazilian adaptations of the Orphic myth. In 1964 choreographer Ramiro Guerra staged the Afro-Cuban dance Orfeo Antillano, which was inspired by the French-Brazilian film Orfeu Negro (1959), by Marcel Camus. In 1980, Cuban playwright Jose Milián premiered Carnaval de Orfeo, a musical play with Yoruba themes that was directly influenced by the Carioca tragedy Orfeu da Conceição (1956), by Vinicius de Moraes. These two Cuban plays reveal a unique and alternative Afro-Latin circuit of transculturation that transcends the relationship with Greek and European models in its hemispheric transmission from Brazil to Cuba. This paper adds a third play to this Afro-Greek repertoire: Réquiem por Yarini (1960), by Carlos Felipe. In this drama, published one year after the premiere of Orfeu Negro in Cuban cinemas, the myth of Orpheus intersects with Afro-Cuban religions and rituals. Considering the temporal proximity among all these productions and their shared interest in the Africanization of Orpheus, I proposed reading Réquiem por Yarini in dialogue with the Afro-Brazilian Orphic dramas. This transnational reading allows me not only to reveal uncharted structural and symbolic similarities between the Réquiem… and the Brazilian productions but also to shed light on several dramatic mysteries within the Cuban play, such as the inclusion of the strange character La Dama del Velo or the mysterious ekphrasis of a diamond watch chain fatally desired by the protagonist. Finally, I comparatively analyze the media specificities of these Afro-Greek adaptations in each context and their repercussions on issues of race, gender, and religion.