ENESCU: Oedipe

Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper;
Gielen, Michael;
Austrian Federal Theatres Stage Orchestra

8.660163-64

Enescu was one of the 20th century's great composers, though there's scant proof of that outside of this 1936 opera, which was the most substantial work in the fitful composing life of a man who also was a great violinist and educator. The opera's approach to Sophocles isn't linear, but zeros in on four episodes from the life of the tortured ruler whose fate was incest and gouged eyes, and does so with a vivid musical language like no other. (Unfortunately, the package comes with a scene synopsis rather than a libretto translation.)

This isn't the opera's first recording; that distinction goes to a 1989 EMI French production with José van Dam in the title role. But this performance from the Vienna State Opera, with a spare, modernist approach toward the orchestra from Michael Gielen and a Wagnerian Oedipus from Monte Pederson, is such a different experience that you sometimes wonder if it's the same work. If nothing else, this set needs to be heard for Marjana Lipovsek's astoundingly imaginative, bone-chilling portrayal of the Sphinx. •The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 2006

CD x 2

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

02-01-2006

730099616324