The Origin The Origin The Origin is an opera/oratorio composed by Richard Einhorn to a libretto by Richard Einhorn and Catherine Barnett based on the writings of Charles Darwin. The oratorio takes its title from Darwin's 1859 "On the Origin of Species". The work was commissioned by the Artswego program and the Music Department of State University of New York at Oswego for the worldwide Darwin Bicentennial. "The Origin" had its world premiere on 6 February 2009 at the university's Waterman Theatre. The premiere performance of "The Origin" was conducted by Julie Pretzat and featured soprano Jacqueline Horner from the a cappella
On the Origin of Species included evidence that he had gathered on the "Beagle" expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation. Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy