Oedipus Rex

Abstract

Oedipus Rex can be seen as a product of many aspects of Igor Stravinsky's development: his lifelong interest in Greek mythology and drama, his forays into what would come to be identified as neo-Classicism, and most importantly, his increasing tendency to depersonalize his music, lending it a cool, almost analytical visage. Oedipus Rex is one of the very first masterpieces of Stravinsky's neo-Classical period, in which he attempted to invest old forms with new vitality, and it is an impressive and absorbing musical statement.

Stravinsky's intention was to compose a lengthy, dramatic work, but he could not at first decide what language to use. He wanted something from the distant past, with an incantory tone that he could exploit musically. He eventually settled on Latin because, in his words, the language was "not dead but turned to stone and so monumentalized as to have become immune from all risk of vulgarization." (The libretto also includes narration which is to be spoken in the language of the audience.) This general theme of monumentalism extended to Stravinsky's conception of the staging, which involved as little movement as possible: Entrances and exits would be accomplished with lighting rather than actual movement, the singers would declaim from elevated platforms and move only their heads and arms, like "living statues," and the characters would remain in costumes and masks throughout. Still, Stravinsky identified the work as an "opera-oratorio" to indicate that it could be performed without staging.

The composer chose the Oedipus myth in large part because he assumed that audiences would be familiar with it, and this would, therefore, enable him to concentrate on musical dramatization rather than storytelling. He employed Jean Cocteau to write the libretto in French; after many disputes, drafts and edits, Stravinsky obtained from the writer a libretto that fit his conception, and gave it to Abbe Jean Danielou to translate into Latin. Cocteau introduced the idea of the narrator, which Stravinsky accepted only reluctantly and later regretted; still, it has the benefit of clarifying the story for those who are not familiar with it.

Oedipus Rex was performed first as an oratorio by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1927, and premiered as an opera in the following year. The music is mostly in the minor mode; Oedipus' music in particular attempts to achieve the solace of the major mode, but is rarely successful in this regard. While the music uses elements of basic tonality, these at times seem disconnected from the drama, almost depersonalized; the C major triad in Creon's aria, sounding weirdly out of place, is an excellent example. Moreover, Stravinsky in this work abandons the shifting rhythms that characterized much of his earlier music for a steady, at times insistent pulse. All of these combine to give the listener a vivid musical depiction of an impersonal Fate pursuing Oedipus until he must give everything up. The effect is at once chilling and mesmerizing. The general spirit of Stravinsky's interpretation is true to Sophocles' play and to ancient Greek thought, and the music, paradoxically, involves the listener by its very impersonality.

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