The Musical Fates takes the audience through many different aspects of dealing with fate, from the tormented Tchaikovsky to the light-hearted Offenbach. In the Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld, we get a snapshot of the fate of Orpheus, a humble violin teacher tormented by Public Opinion to rescue his wife from the underworld. Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony is wrapped up in the composer’s idea of fate, “the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness.” We hear the fate fanfare throughout the symphony, always reorienting the listener back to the bleakness of life. These two diametrically opposed statements of fate, Offenbach on one hand and Tchaikovsky on the other, let us into the quandary that is fate - it is almost always in the eye of the beholder.