Stravinsky Oedipus Rex

Started by knight66, April 11, 2014, 01:26:41 PM

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knight66

John Elliot Gardiner, Stuart Skelton, Jennifer Johnston,  Fanny Ardant, Monteverdi Choir, LSO.   Live recording

Oedipus Rex plus Apollon Musagete

Oedipus is described in the accompanying notes as an opera-oratorio. Although very early on it was performed as an opera, from my reading, it had initially been conceived as an oratorio. It is in Stravinsky's neo-classical style which is seemingly supposed to be anti-dramatic. A deliberately alienating language was chosen, slightly mysteriously Latin and not ancient Greek. There is a linking narrator, words by Cocteau. So, several techniques are used to distance the listener from the drama. There are two main ways to perform this and I have been in both types of performance. One producing hammer blows of drama and a tragic dying close with Gary Bertini, the other, formal, mechanistic, contained, Salonen. The former, I can still recapture the thrill of, the latter has entirely slid through my mind to the extent that I don't even recall the names of the soloists. But according to scholars, the distanced, hieratic way is the right way.

So, what do we have here? Well, for one thing, it has something of the feel of a chamber piece, the men only chorus is small, 24 are named, though very effective. These are professional singers, the LSO chorus was not used. I would have preferred a much larger sound, but they do sing well. The drama is very human and the soloists are given space to do much more than declaim. So, it does tend towards the dramatic end of the spectrum.

Oedipus is written with quite a high tessitura, the lines are not written to allow the voice to blossom. Skelton sounds very stressed in the first part. Difficult to believe he was the Grimes I recently heard live: plenty of heft and volume and warmth of tone, so the thin desiccated sound here is a surprise, not a nice one. He does get better as it progresses and makes effective use of the words. The Jocasta here is excellent. I listened afterwards to two more opulent voices in the part, Jessye Norman and Ewa Podles. Norman in particular sounds like the piece was written for her, but both she and Podles are allowed to wallow. Gardiner keeps that section moving and it flows very naturally. The rippling woodwind writing does not really make its mark, the balancing rather than the players, the brass does well.

The outright highlight, perversely, is Fanny Ardent. She has a wonderful, sexy voice and I would have welcomed twice as much narration. She injects all kinds of emotion into the French, not just world weary cynicism, as I have heard in some performances. And it works much better in French than English, the declamation of Racine is never very far away! That style works superbly in French, in English it sounds stilted and over projected. One of my otherwise favourite versions, with Colin Davis, has Ralph Richardson giving a very lovie RP performance, that slight hint of old buffer does not serve the piece.

But this recording is greater than the sum of its parts, it carries you along to that extremely sad ending. The story is unfolded very cogently and sweeps you up in it.

The ballet seems in a different class of sound engineering, closer, more open, though still dry. Rhythms pointed, beautiful arcing melodies are showcased.  Whether the neo-classical idiom is supposed to sound formal or not, here it is injected with sensuality and wit.

So, a disc I will happily listen to again, but if you only want one version of Oedipus perhaps look elsewhere....Ancerel, Davis, Ozawa.

Mike



DavidW: Yeah Mike doesn't get angry, he gets even.
I wasted time: and time wasted me.

mjwal

From the point of view of the narration in French - and I agree it is superior to the English (The Soldier's Tale comes off rather better in English, I find, but still not as good as the French, just listen to the Stokowski version) - the old Stravinsky version with Jean Cocteau as speaker is unparalleled, but Sony unfortunately reissued it with the alternative American narration inserted, a grave error. So the Ancerl with the excellent and idiomatic Jean Desailly rules supreme, with its power and plangency.
The Violin's Obstinacy

It needs to return to this one note,
not a tune and not a key
but the sound of self it must depart from,
a journey lengthily to go
in a vein it knows will cripple it.
...
Peter Porter

springrite

Quote from: mjwal on April 26, 2014, 12:51:28 AM
From the point of view of the narration in French - and I agree it is superior to the English (The Soldier's Tale comes off rather better in English, I find, but still not as good as the French, just listen to the Stokowski version) - the old Stravinsky version with Jean Cocteau as speaker is unparalleled, but Sony unfortunately reissued it with the alternative American narration inserted, a grave error. So the Ancerl with the excellent and idiomatic Jean Desailly rules supreme, with its power and plangency.

I love the DVD version with Ozawa conducting and the narration is in Japanese! Stupendous!
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.