Search - Igor Stravinsky, Colin Davis, Patricia Johnson :: Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex

A performance of surpassing drama, one of a kind!

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although it's a neo-classical work, and therefore often preformed as if more ritual than drama, sometimes Oedipus Rex gets a really fiery reading. This is one, a recording made after performances staged at Sadler's Wells in 1963. In general, the roster of singers is mostly forgotten now, but all are good and the Oedipus of Roland Dowd is superb. If you ever felt that Stravinsky created a flat, featureless puppet in Oedipus, Dowd will convince you that this is a role as full as Manrico in "Trovatore." Highly recommended"

Stravinsky's finest post-"Rite of Spring" composition

W. Soll | St. Louis, MO | 12/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I agree completely with the earlier reviewers and am grateful to them; their reviews led me to purchase this wonderful CD.



Oedipus Rex is often described--correctly--as a "monumental" work. The composer directed that the work be performed with stone masks, and chose to have the text translated into Latin, "a language not dead, but turned to stone." Paradoxically, the monumental detachment of such a framework liberated Stravinsky to create his most emotionally powerful score, as if he feared that anything less elevated would render human emotions tawdry and banal.



This recording is clear and forceful enough to limn the gravitas of the drama, and at the same time red-blooded enough to assure us that human hearts do in fact beat beneath the masks. And if, like me, you don't recognize the names of any of the singers, don't let that put you off--the singing is absolutely first rate throughout.



One review laments the lack of a printed libretto. As of this writing, the Latin libretto can be found, with English translation, in program notes from a 2007 London Symphony performance available online. Search terms stravinsky oedipus gergiev libera 14 May.



This recording, along with the wonderful DVD of the Julie Taymor production (with Langridge, Norman and Terfl), might well convince you that Oedipus Rex is Stravinsky's finest post-"Rite of Spring" composition."