Summary
Jorge Rivera-Herrans releases the fourth saga of Epic: The Musical, The Circe Saga
February 14 marks the release of Epic: The Musical’s Circe Saga.
Explaining the saga
Puerto Rican musician and playwright Jorge Rivera-Herrans’s Epic: The Musical reimagines the ancient Greek epic as a musical. Following protagonist Oddyseus’s journey from Troy to his home in Ithica, the musical’s hero must face gods and monsters to reunite with his wife and son.
The musical is an ongoing story, comprised of nine ‘sagas’: The Troy Saga; The Cyclops Saga; The Ocean Saga; The Circe Saga; The Underworld Saga; The Thunder Saga; The Wisdom Saga; The Vengeance Saga; and The Ithaca Saga.
The first four sagas have been released, with The Underworld saga likely releasing on December 25.
Rivera-Herrans makes clever use of instrumentation. He assigns each character their own instrument and mixes harmonies to emphasise the characters’ emotions and the scale of their situations.
Puppeteer
Puppeteer is the saga’s first song. We hear it after it is revealed that Circe has turned the rest of Odysseus’ men into pigs. Circe’s signature string motif plays, in reference to her regality. Circe then beckons the soldiers into her trap where she can begin the transformation.
This song contains electronic elements as Circe is a goddess. Rivera-Herrans has made this song sound fun and uplifting, like a party rather than a trap. Circe, voiced by Tayla Sindel, uses a powerful voice to warn the soldiers that she controls the stage. She is not the performer, but the master, and the song’s instrumentation and lyrics portray this masterfully.
Wouldn’t You Like
Hermes, voiced by Troy Doherty, gives Odysseus the power to take on Circe, but in the form of a plant that weakens her power. Hermes’s laugh at the beginning of the song instantly tells the audience that he is nearby.
Wouldn’t You Like is lively and upbeat, combining piano, bass, drums, arpeggios and a lyre to create a rhythmic harmony. This music pairs with the songs lyrics, which describe how dangerous Circe is, but in Hermes’s typical light-hearted way.
Hermes asks Odysseus if he would like “a taste of the power”. This is literal, because the plant must be eaten for it to enact its power-weakening venom.
The song’s main verse repeats with an ensemble that makes the lyrics pop and sound electrifying. It also links to his divine power, coming in the form of extending his feelings through an ensemble. This one hypes up Odysseus and how he is now better armed against Circe.
Done For
This song’s melody is inspired by the classic French opera, Carmen. The song foreshadows Circe using her charm and beauty to overpower Odysseus later in the musical. Since Circe has magical powers, Rivera-Herrans uses low-frequency oscillators to mimic the sound of a choir in the song’s background.
Oddyseus’s electric guitar plays just before he can use his charm to approach Circe and resolve her situation. Circe summons a chimera: a cross-bred beast made up of a lion, a goat and a snake. In the song, Rivera-Herran combines the noises of an elephant, a bear and a lion to create a monstrous sound for Circe’s chimera. This is paired perfectly with the change in Circe’s tone from innocent to defensive.
In the song’s second-last verse, Odyseus and Circe use stronger tones in their voices to emphasise their strength and determination amid their troubling circumstance. Circe concludes that she is defeated, but has one more card to play.
There Are Other Ways
The song’s final song, There Are Other Ways references back to Carmen again. Circe is defeated, returning to a gentle tone, while Oddyseus also refelcts on his past mistakes.
Circe attempts to seduce Oddyseus, which is when he tells her that he is married. In classic Epic fashion, Oddyseus’s viola-led love motif plays when he thinks of his wife, Penelope. This was a clever touch as it reminds us why Oddyseus has went to great lengths to return home.
Circe decides she will release Oddyseus’s men and help them get to the Underworld, where they will meet blind prophet Tirersias and plan how to evade Poseidon, God of the seas.
Closing the Circe Saga, Oddyseus’s soldiers reprise the line “so much power”, which reiterates that Circe is a puppetteer, not a player. A saga about Circe’s power and the desperation of the remaining crew comes to an end.
Final Notes
The four songs in the Circe Saga are once again a hit: memorable, well-written and well-composed. With so much of Rivera-Herran’s story still to come, one can’t help but feel the suspense waiting for his future sagas.
You can find clips of Circe Saga and behind-the-scenes footage on Rivera-Herran’s YouTube and TikTok and you can listen to Circe Saga and previous sagas here.
Image credit: Epic The Musical Official Concept Album
Third year journalism student. 2025/2026 Lifestyle and Comment Editor at Brig. Published in The Yucatán Times, Mi Campeche and The Mourning Paper. Host of From the 40s with Air3Radio.
