Igor Stravinsky - Oedipus Rex (1994)

1. Prologue : Verehrtes Publikum
2. Acte 1 : Caedit Nos Estis
3. Sehet Dort Kreon
4. Respondit Deus				play
5. Non Non Reperias Vetus Scelus
6. Oedipus Befragt Den Quell
7. Dedie Exspectamus
8. Dicere Non Possum			play
9. Invidia Fortunam Odit
10. Gloria Gloria
11. Acte 2 : Der Streit Der Fursten
12. Non'Erubescite
13. Der Einzige Zeuge
14. Adest Omniscius Pastor
15. Oportebat Tacere
16. Jez Werdet Ihr
17. Divum Jocaste Caput Mortuum !

Ernst Haefliger - Oedipus
Herta Töpper - Jocasta
Kloth Engen - Teiresias
Paul Kuen - le Berger
Ivan Sardi - Kreon & le Messager

Choeur des Norddeutschen Rundfunks
Choeur de Chambre RIAS
Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio de Berlin
Ferenc Fricsay - conductor, 1960

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring caused a riot in Paris and Oedipus Rex caused similar outrage when in premiered in 1928. The work is not an opera in the traditional sense but more of an oratorio. The libretto was written by Jean Cocteau and is based on Sophocles original tragedy.

Oedipus, having become king of Thebes by murdering his father marries Jacosta without knowing that she is in fact his mother. When the truth comes out as a result of a curse that has befallen the city, Jacosta kills herself and Oedipus takes out his eyes to wander the land. Here we listen to Oedipus impose self-exile on himself until the conclusion of the work. The entire opera (or oratorio, however you look at it) is sung with the singer’s faces covered with masks. The singers were not to sing to one another but to direct their voices at the audience. This would cut away the individual tragedy and focus more on the fatal elements of the story. This is almost like Petrushka, the same puppet-like fatalistic qualities. In terms of music, Stravinsky is showing quite a bit of his neo-classicist bend here.

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