The Minotaur
E590937
The Minotaur is a contemporary opera by British composer Harrison Birtwistle that reimagines the Greek myth of the half-man, half-bull creature with a dark, psychologically intense score.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Minotaur canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6398285 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Minotaur Context triple: [Harrison Birtwistle, notableWork, The Minotaur]
-
A.
“The Minotaur”
“The Minotaur” is a poem by Ted Hughes from his collection *Birthday Letters*, reflecting on his relationship with Sylvia Plath through the mythic figure of the Minotaur.
-
B.
Minotaur
The Minotaur is a legendary creature from Greek mythology, depicted as a fearsome monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull that dwelled in the Labyrinth of Crete.
-
C.
labyrinth of the Minotaur
The labyrinth of the Minotaur is the legendary maze in Greek mythology where the half-man, half-bull creature was imprisoned and ultimately slain by the hero Theseus.
-
D.
Theseus and the Minotaur
"Theseus and the Minotaur" is a renowned neoclassical marble sculpture by Antonio Canova depicting the Greek hero Theseus victorious over the slain Minotaur.
-
E.
The Labyrinth
"The Labyrinth" is a memoir by former Nazi intelligence officer Walter Schellenberg, offering an insider account of the Third Reich’s espionage and power struggles.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Minotaur Target entity description: The Minotaur is a contemporary opera by British composer Harrison Birtwistle that reimagines the Greek myth of the half-man, half-bull creature with a dark, psychologically intense score.
-
A.
“The Minotaur”
“The Minotaur” is a poem by Ted Hughes from his collection *Birthday Letters*, reflecting on his relationship with Sylvia Plath through the mythic figure of the Minotaur.
-
B.
Minotaur
The Minotaur is a legendary creature from Greek mythology, depicted as a fearsome monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull that dwelled in the Labyrinth of Crete.
-
C.
labyrinth of the Minotaur
The labyrinth of the Minotaur is the legendary maze in Greek mythology where the half-man, half-bull creature was imprisoned and ultimately slain by the hero Theseus.
-
D.
Theseus and the Minotaur
"Theseus and the Minotaur" is a renowned neoclassical marble sculpture by Antonio Canova depicting the Greek hero Theseus victorious over the slain Minotaur.
-
E.
The Labyrinth
"The Labyrinth" is a memoir by former Nazi intelligence officer Walter Schellenberg, offering an insider account of the Third Reich’s espionage and power struggles.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
contemporary opera
ⓘ
opera ⓘ |
| basedOn | Greek myth of the Minotaur ⓘ |
| characteristic |
dark orchestral color
ⓘ
intense vocal writing ⓘ non-linear narrative elements ⓘ |
| commissionedBy | Royal Opera House, Covent Garden NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| composer | Harrison Birtwistle NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| criticalReception | generally positive ⓘ |
| duration | approximately 120 minutes ⓘ |
| features |
complex rhythms
ⓘ
dense textures ⓘ prominent percussion ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceCompany | The Royal Opera NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
contemporary classical music
ⓘ
opera ⓘ |
| hasType | tragic opera ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| librettist | David Harsent NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Ariadne
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Minotaur NERFINISHED ⓘ Theseus NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableRecording | Royal Opera House production recording NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableRole |
Ariadne (soprano)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Minotaur (baritone) NERFINISHED ⓘ Theseus (baritone) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| numberOfActs | 2 ⓘ |
| orchestration | large orchestra ⓘ |
| partOf | Harrison Birtwistle’s stage works ⓘ |
| period | 21st-century opera ⓘ |
| premiereConductor | Antonio Pappano NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| premiereDate | 2008-04-15 ⓘ |
| premiereDirector | Stephen Langridge NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| premierePlace | Royal Opera House, London NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publisher | Boosey & Hawkes NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setting | Labyrinth of Crete NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| structure | prologue and epilogue ⓘ |
| style |
modernist
ⓘ
psychologically intense ⓘ |
| subject |
Ariadne
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Minotaur NERFINISHED ⓘ Theseus NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| theme |
identity
ⓘ
imprisonment ⓘ myth reimagining ⓘ violence ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Minotaur Description of subject: The Minotaur is a contemporary opera by British composer Harrison Birtwistle that reimagines the Greek myth of the half-man, half-bull creature with a dark, psychologically intense score.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.