The Origin quartet, Anonymous 4; tenor Todd Graber; bass Eric Johnson; the women's vocal ensemble, Kitka; the SUNY Oswego College Choir; Oswego College-Community Orchestra; and the Oswego Festival Chorus. Of the over 200 performers, about 80 were students at SUNY Oswego. The projected video images which served as a backdrop to the performance were by filmmaker Bill Morrison. 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
On the Origin of Species under way, Darwin wrote to Lyell offering the suggested publisher John Murray assurances "That I do not discuss origin of man". In the final chapter of "On the Origin of Species", "Recapitulation and Conclusion", Darwin briefly highlights the human implications of his theory: In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." Discussing this in January 1860, Darwin assured Lyell that "by the