OEDIPUS REX (Stravinsky) Berlin 1995 Claudio Abbado, Heppner, Salminen, Terfel, Lipovsek, Bartoli

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Oedipus Rex  
• Composer: Stravinsky Igor  
• Libretto: Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky based on Sophokles  
• Venue & Opera Company: Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany  
• Recorded: 29 May 1995
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Ben Heppner, Matti Salminen, Bryn Terfel, Marjana Lipovsek, Cecilia Bartoli, Barry McCauley
• Conductor: Claudio Abbado  
• Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker  
• Chorus: Swedish Radio Choir, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Estnischer Philharmonischer Kammerchor Tallinn  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Date Published: 1995  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  
• This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

Oedipus rex is an opera-oratorio by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles’s tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin; the narration, however, is performed in the language of the audience.

Oedipus rex was written towards the beginning of Stravinsky’s neoclassical period, and is considered one of the finest works from this phase of the composer’s career. He had considered setting the work in Ancient Greek, but decided ultimately on Latin: in his words “a medium not dead but turned to stone.”