annunciation

The tradition’s canonical scenes — annunciations, resurrections, saintly transfigurations — are unavoidably miraculous, no matter how they’re rendered.

In some ways Danaë’s story parallels the combined New Testament episodes of the annunciation, which in turn prefigures the birth of Jesus and his death on the cross.

The opening credits — an assembly-line montage scored to the pounding first chords of the blues song “I’m a Man,” sung with new lyrics by Captain Beefheart — provide a brutal annunciation.

It felt precious to be there at that pivotal moment, at both a peculiar homecoming and an annunciation.

A soft whisper of violins yields to sighing, drooping sounds throughout the strings, then forthright brass fanfares begin; they recur throughout the piece, a kind of periodic annunciation.