[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]
[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]
[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]For me personally, the third paper has proved to be the hardest so far. Of course, living through a global pandemic certainly isn’t helping the situation, but I’m also less familiar with operas/oratorios in general. Because of this, I purposely chose Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex in order to broaden my musical horizons. I’m an instrumentalist at heart, so my research for this project has been especially illuminating but comes with challenges as well.
Before I start, here’s a clip from the famous comic Calvin and Hobbes that I found quite fitting for our current state:
When beginning research for this particular work, I had no problem finding sources on the background of the piece and why it was written. However, I initially wanted to find the libretto, written by Jean Cocteau so I could take a closer look at the text of this oratorio. I ran into my first challenge, which was that I could not find a stupid copy of the libretto anywhere! After a few frustrating hours, I contacted the trusty Professor Epstein, who directed me to the Naxos music library. I wasn’t ever able to find an “original” libretto, but Naxos provided a translation of the opera, which will suffice for now.
I found much more luck when searching for the program Oedipus Rex, which premiered in May 1927 at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in Paris. The program lists Stravinsky as the composer and the conductor of the premier performance:
After finding the program, I figured the most important thing to do was understand the initial reception of the piece in order to place myself into the mind of a rather well-educated critic. When looking deeper into this, I found that the initial reactions to Oedipus Rex were largely negative. This is unfortunate, as Stravinsky wrote to Jean Cocteau about his interest in composing an opera that deals with a tragedy of the Ancient World because he knew audiences would be familiar with it. However, most reviews were quite scathing.
In this example from L’Écho de Paris, the critic claims Oedipus Rex is a disappointment, and he even goes as far to claims that the singers make the Latin text difficult to grasp. Additionally, the entire work was meant to be a surprise for Diaghilev as a birthday present and to celebrate the Ballet Russes’ 20th season in 1927.1 This later backfired, because Diaghilev managed to find out about the project and was upset that more funds would have to be raised in order to include it in the season. Stravinsky then had to work with both the Princess de Polignac and Coco Chanel in order to try to receive the proper funds. From all of this, I’m learning even more abut Parisian cultural politics, even when I did not necessarily mean to.
Overall, I think the knowledge of Parisian cultural politics may help me as a “critic” while writing my paper. It may prove difficult to write a negative review, but I believe it will be the most realistic way to incorporate one of the lenses we use in class to view this piece.
Here’s another meme:
1 Walsh, Stephen. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Accessed via Google books. https://books.google.com/books?id=gK5qvQjo1qQC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=letter+from+stravinsky+to+cocteau&source=bl&ots=FPIiFuNK6g&sig=ACfU3U3iTRQu-_GXlpMteWPXh90PzMqSww&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjN8KPZ247pAhWOWM0KHR-vBBcQ6AEwDnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=letter%20from%20stravinsky%20to%20cocteau&f=false
2 My dumb brain
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]