Œdipe (opera)
Opera by George Enescu / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Œdipe (Oedipe) is an opera in four acts by the Romanian composer George Enescu, set to a French libretto by Edmond Fleg. It is based on the mythological tale of Oedipus, as told by Sophocles in Oedipus the King.
Œdipe | |
---|---|
Opera by George Enescu | |
Librettist | Edmond Fleg |
Language | French |
Based on | The Theban plays by Sophocles |
Premiere | 13 March 1936 (1936-03-13) Paris |
Enescu had the idea to compose an Oedipus-inspired opera even before finding a libretto and began to sketch music for it in 1910. The first-draft libretto from Fleg arrived in 1913. Enescu completed the music in 1922 and the orchestration in 1931. The opera received its world premiere in Paris on 13 March 1936.[1] The first Romanian production was conducted by Constantin Silvestri in Bucharest on 22 September 1958, using a Romanian translation of the libretto by Emanoil Ciomac [ro].[2] The first German production was in Berlin in 1996, in a production that subsequently traveled to the Vienna State Opera.[3] The United States premiere was in 2005 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[4] The first performance at the Salzburg Festival took place during the summer of 2019 with Christopher Maltman in the title role, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, with John Tomlinson as Tiresias and Anaïk Morel as Jocaste.[5]
This dramatic musical treatment of the Oedipus myth is unusual in that it attempts to cover the entire story of Oedipus' life, from birth to death. Act III covers the story of Oedipus Rex. Act IV overlaps in plot with Oedipus at Colonus, though with divergent psychological treatment of Oedipus' final days compared to the original.[6] It is generally considered to be Enescu's masterpiece.