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Emma Birski / OnP

Opera

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Œdipe

Georges Enesco

Opéra Bastille

from 23 September to 14 October 2021

3h15 with 1 interval

The show will be broadcast live on October 14 at 7:30 pm on L'Opéra chez soi and medici.tv 

Œdipe

Opéra Bastille - from 23 September to 14 October 2021

Synopsis

In 1909, after attending a performance of OEdipus Rex at the Comédie-Française, George Enescu hastened to transcribe the first bars of his one and only opera. Sophocles’ play had the effect of an electroshock on the Romanian composer, spurring him to begin work on his score before he even had a libretto. The completed work would ultimately have its world premiere at the Paris Opera in 1936. The influences of his teacher Fauré, of Stravinsky, Debussy and Romania’s ancestral musical traditions all fuelled an orchestral and vocal composition of unparalleled originality. Surprisingly, despite receiving a rapturous reception, the work was rarely staged at opera houses during the 20th century. For his Paris Opera debut, Wajdi Mouawad evokes the life of OEdipus – the man unaware of his own identity – in a continuum of organic, vegetal, ethereal and aquatic images.

Duration : 3h15 with 1 interval

Language : French

  • Opening

  • First part 85 min

  • Intermission 30 min

  • Second part 80 min

  • End

Show acts and characters

CHARACTERS

Œdipus: Son of Laius and Jocasta
Laius: King of Thebes
Jocasta: Queen of Thebes, mother and wife of Œdipus
Creon: Brother of Jocasta
Tiresias: A soothsayer
Merope: Œdipus’ adoptive mother, Queen of Corinth
Phorbas: Shepherd in the service of Polybus and Merope, rulers of Corinth
The Shepherd: Commanded by Laius to kill the newborn Œdipus
Antigone: Daughter of Œdipus and Jocasta
Theseus: King of Athens
The Sphinx
The High Priest
The Night Watchman

Prologue (Addition of Wadji Mouawad to the original libretto by Wajdi Mouawad. Non-musical.)

Taking sanctuary with King Pelops when chased out of Thebes by tyrants who have usurped his throne, Laius, still a young man, falls in love with Chrysippus, his host’s son. One morning, Laius, responsible for teaching him to drive a chariot, rapes Chrysippus. The child, overcome with shame, hangs himself. A grief-crazed Pelops calls down the curse of Apollo upon Laius. The archer god forbids Laius to bring a child into the world without the child killing his father and committing adultery with his mother. Years pass by. Laius returns to the throne of Thebes, makes Jocasta his wife and, in making her pregnant, knowingly contravenes the oracle pronounced against him by Apollo for having raped a child and precipitated his death.

Act I

First scene
In the royal palace, the people of Thebes are celebrating the birth of Œdipus, the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The blind old soothsayer, Tiresias, interrupts the festivities. He blames Laius for not having listened to Apollo, who had ordered him not to have offspring. The punishment of the gods is without appeal: the child will be murder his father and marry his mother. Horrified by the confirmation of the omen, Laius entrusts his child to a shepherd and asks him to kill him on the mountainside.

Act II

Second scene
Twenty years later in Corinth, in the palace of King Polybus and Queen Merope. Œdipus has just returned from Delphi, where the oracle has foretold his terrible fate. He questions the king and queen about his true identity. Merope swears that he is their son. She is unaware that her real child, who died at birth, has been replaced by Œdipus , whom the Shepherd did not have the courage to kill. After revealing the prophecy to his mother, OEdipus decides to leave Corinth to escape the prediction.

Third scene
At the junction of three roads, where the Shepherd who once saved him is also to be found, OEdipus hesitates as to which way to go. Relieved of the nightmares that have plagued him, he considers returning to his city. After a violent flash of lightning arouses his suspicions and makes him curse the gods, he encounters the chariot of an old man who orders him to step aside in no uncertain terms. Defending himself, Œdipus unknowingly kills the man who is none other than Laius, his father, and flees.

Fourth scene
At the gates of Thebes, the watchman guards the Sphinx, a winged, bloodthirsty monster that kills all those who do not answer its riddle. To save the city, Œdipus decides to confront it. He awakens the monster who asks him to name someone or something greater than fate. Without hesitation, Œdipus answers “Man”. Defeated, the Sphinx dies, laughing out loud, whilst Thebes is delivered. As a reward, Jocasta, King Laius’ widow, becomes OEdipus’ wife and OEdipus the ruler  of the city. The people carry him in triumph.

Act III

Fifth scene
Twenty years later. Thebes is ravaged by the plague. Œdipus asks Creon, Jocasta’s brother, to go to Delphi in order to consult Apollo. The oracle reveals that the epidemic will end once Laius’ murderer, present in the city, is unmasked and punished. Œdipus swears to find the culprit, who will be cursed and condemned to the wrath of the gods. If he exposes himself, his punishment will be reduced to exile. While Œdipus suspects Tiresias, Tiresias returns the accusation. Before Jocasta reveals to him the location of Laius’ death, Œdipus believes that Creon is plotting. But the Shepherd confirms his identity to OEdipus, who discovers that he killed his father before marrying his mother. Horrified, Jocasta hangs herself while OEdipus gouges out his eyes. To save the city, he goes into exile with his daughter Antigone.

Act IV

Sixth scene

Some years later, on the edge of a sacred wood near Athens where Theseus reigns, Creon comes to beg Œdipus to return to Thebes, once again in peril. OEdipus refuses. Creon decides to take Antigone hostage. She is rescued by the Athenians who recognise OEdipus to be the innocent victim of his destiny. Followed by Theseus, Œdipus recovers his sight and disappears into the sacred wood, before dying in the light of day and becoming the protector of Thebes.

Artists

Opera in four acts

Creative team

Cast

Orchestre et Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Choeur d’enfants de l’Opéra national de Paris

Œdipe has been filmed by director François Roussillon, as a coproduction by the Paris Opera and François Roussillon et Associés, with the support of the CNC and the Orange Foundation - sponsor of the audiovisual broadcastings at the Paris Opera. The performance will be broadcast live on October 14 at 7:30 pm on Medici.tv and on L'Opéra chez soi, the Paris Opera’s digital platform, and later on Mezzo Live HD Sunday 17 October 2021 at 9 pm.

Media

  • In the footsteps of Oedipus

    In the footsteps of Oedipus

    Watch the video

  • Oedipus’ metamorphoses

    Oedipus’ metamorphoses

    Read the article

  • Georges Enescu’s odyssey

    Georges Enescu’s odyssey

    Watch the video

  • Œdipe, stronger than destiny

    Œdipe, stronger than destiny

    Watch the video

  • Draw-me Œdipe

    Draw-me Œdipe

    Watch the video

  • Podcast Œdipe

    Podcast Œdipe

    Listen the podcast

In the footsteps of Oedipus

Watch the video

A conversation with Wajdi Mouawad

5:17 min

In the footsteps of Oedipus

By Solène Souriau

Invited for the first time to the Paris Opera, Wajdi Mouawad is directing Œdipe, Georges Enescu's opera created in 1936 at the Palais Garnier and never performed there again since. As a man of the theatre and a true specialist on the myth, he retraces the trajectory of this man who does not know himself and his path to self-knowledge.

Œdipe by Georges Enesco

For his Paris Opera debut, Wajdi Mouawad evokes the life of OEdipus – the man unaware of his own identity...

© Elisa Haberer / OnP

Oedipus’ metamorphoses

Read the article

03 min

Oedipus’ metamorphoses

By Alexandre Lacroix, Philosophie magazine

Wajdi Mouawad is presenting at the Bastille Opera his brilliant production of the opera Œdipe by Georges Enesco that we could describe as a powerful visual fresco depicting the different layers of this famous Greek myth. A plastic and scenic design feat, mainly thanks to Enesco’s libretto of this “lyrical tragedy”, which condenses and articulates in a clear and modern way everything that we know about the hero Oedipus, from his father Laius’ initial crime (who raped a child) until his death in front of the doors of Athens.    

If Œdipe by Romanian composer Georges Enesco remains a rather unknown work, it continues to spark off surprising revivals and metamorphoses, from Rosset to Mouawad.

First, he quite unusually decided to focus more on the text than on music itself, or in other words, to mostly highlight the libretto. As a result, instead of opening the opera with a musical overture, the performance starts with a prolog: a voice-over relates the crime once committed by Oedipus’s father, Laius, connecting this episode with the notions of desire and labyrinths. Some of the key quotes of Edmond Fleg’s libretto are simply said, others are yelled by the singers, but none are sung. The lyrics of the libretto aren’t merely screened on traditional supertitles device hanging above the stage: they are directly projected onto the mobile panels composing the stage sets, within the character’s reach. We are being plunged in a world forged by the text, by the reading, the tragedy; things that actually are the bias of a stage director who is a man of theatre.

But the visual side of this work is where Mouawad’s creativity turns out to be the most surprising operatic aspect. Costumes remind us a bit of Moebius characters with their strange flowery hats. There are countless innovations, if not bravura displays, often related to the geometrical figure of the circle. In the second scene, for instance, a video showing a cloud of birds flying in and out of a black circle is screened. In Ancient times, the templum was the sacred space within which augurs were predicting the future. Observing from this space flights of birds, their number and direction allowed them to read the lines of destiny. The templum back then was a rectangular space: it transforms into a circle in Mouawad’s work and the flights of black birds are a symbol of a frightening oracular threat. Later, the sphinx is caught in a circular cavity filled with a type of mucus evoking a vagina dilated by a speculum or the corridor of the womb filled with amniotic fluid. Still later, Jocasta (both mother and spouse to Oedipus) is wandering on the stage, a red long piece of fabric tied to her waist representing the umbilical cord, which fades into the decorative sky and in which Oedipus will eventually wrap himself… These are but a few examples, still they show how this production goes far beyond the Freudian explanation of the myth - which tends to reduce Oedipus to a simple daddy-and-mommy issue - and becomes an illustration of how each birth already contains death, but also how we all nourish, deep into our inner labyrinths, a desire of self-annihilation, threatening us like a hidden Minotaur and that we have to defeat if we want to reach light, at last.    


Clément Rosset: “My central philosophical discovery came to me while I was listening to the opera Œdipe by Georges Enesco on the radio”

In this excerpt of a second interview about Joy is deeper than Sadness (Stock/Philosophie Magazine éditeur, 2019), philosopher Clément Rosset discusses about / how the opera Œdipe, by Georges Enesco, turned out to be the trigger of a genuine philosophical clarity the day he first heard it on the radio, an experience which was then the key to a core-concept of his work, the notion of “double”. He analyses a central element in the libretto of this lyrical tragedy, written by Edmond Fleg: the fact that Oedipus is paying for his father’s crime, considered as only a “detail” for Sigmund Freud who tends to turn the Greek hero to a character driven by his own inner constitution, or a lonely neurotic confronted to his fate.    

Alexandre Lacroix: The myth of Oedipus was for you a trigger in the creation of your concept of the double. How did it happen?

Clément Rosset: It happened in less than a minute! My central philosophical discovery, the concept I’ve been developing in all of my books for over 35 years, came to me in a flash, like a moment of clarity. I suddenly realized that the very essence of the real is its absence of double. This complete singularity is in the real’s nature. As a result, all the pictures we have of reality, the dreams, the shadows we think we perceive from it, are nothing but ghosts and distortions.

I was struck by this idea on an evening – it was the end of February or maybe beginning of March 1974. I had a dinner with some friends in Nice. I was getting ready to go out, I was in a rush and was only half listening to the voice of a commentator on France-Musique who was presenting Georges Enesco’s opera, Œdipe. He was briefly summarizing the main storyline of Sophocles’ play, and at one point he mentioned the moment when, at the beginning, Oedipus learns from the oracle at Delphi of the prophecy about him. He immediately decides to escape his destiny and leaves the king and queen of Corinth, who he believes to be his actual parents but are, in fact, not. And that’s precisely this movement, born from his desire to avoid the oracle’s prediction, which sets in motion the chaos where he ends up killing his real father, the King of Thebes, and marring his birth mother, the Queen of Thebes. As I listened to the story, and even though I already knew it, I was suddenly all ears. “God, what an imbecile, he should have never left Corinth!” I thought to myself. But it almost immediately hit me: I was myself lost in a total illusion, thinking that these events should have happened differently. In a way, my discovery could be summed up into one sentence: what we take for a perverse version of reality is, in fact, the very real. Such a thought is vertiginous, if you take the time to think of all its consequences, something I’m still working on to this day. So when I arrived at my friends, I was aware of the exceptionally important moment I had just lived. It may sound pretentious of me, but I declared to my friends as they opened the door: “I’ve just been visited by the genius of philosophy”.    

So is it possible to have some “eurekas!”, or flashes in philosophy?

Absolutely. You have similar flashes of inspiration in some classical authors; take Descartes, Pascal or Rousseau. And it’s not rare that some of the ideas that will live inside of us during a lifetime will show up, unexpectedly, in a moment of inattention, or in a dream. That reminds me of a comic by Georges Crumb, an album called Head Comix, in which the characters are randomly hit by some mysterious wads, coming from nobody knows where. The origin and the nature of these wads are the subject of a considerable deal of speculation. Well that night, I was hit by a wad...    

Let’s now dig a little bit deeper into the myth. What’s your opinion about Freud’s interpretation of Oedipus’ myth?

There is one major flaw in his interpretation: Freud overlooked the origins of the whole story. And it’s precisely impossible to have a clear understanding of poor Oedipus’ actions if you don’t know the story of Oedipus’s real father, Laius, and his crime. Freud based his notion of the “Oedipus complex”, today one of the basic concepts of the psychoanalytic theory, exclusively on Sophocles’ version of the myth (Oedipus King) and, what’s more, a truncated one.    

What is the criminal record which got censored by Freud?

As you know, Laius was the king of Thebes. One day, way before Oedipus’ birth, he welcomes in his palace Pelops, king of Pisa in Elis and his son Chrysippus. Chrysippus, whose name actually means “golden hair”, was a splendid child, only a dozen years old. Laius was burnt with such a libidinal desire for this young boy that he kidnapped him during the night and raped him. The rape of Chrysippus is the main argument of a play by Euripides, Chrysippos, which is lost to us today, though we found a few fragments. This motif appeared later in many works, such as in Parallel lives, by Plutarch, and Tusculanes by Cicero. So this rape was well-known by the readers of Antiquity. But Laius’s story doesn’t end here! Soon after they left Thebes, Chrysippus told his father what happened. In his rage, Pelops begged Hera, goddess patroness of the home, to avenge him. Back then, humans could speak to the gods in a most direct way than today… The oracle of Delphi revealed Laius his punishment: he had his life his life would be spared, but he was forbidden to conceive a child. And should he ever have a boy – an heir capable of taking his place on the throne and carry on the lineage- the oracle predicted him this boy would kill him and marry his wife.

So you grant little credit to the complex of Oedipus?

Hold on, don’t make me look like a cheap denigrator of the psychoanalysis! I do consider Freud as a huge thinker. But I think we should not overemphasis the importance of Oedipus in the Freudian construction. Something else is bothering me in Freud’s theory, and that’s his tendency to assert that some things which are true in a case automatically turn out to be true on a universal scale. In other words, the psychoanalytic theory states that all the children must go through this Oedipus crisis phase, regardless of their family situation, their parents’ psychological profiles, or whether they have siblings or not. I’m quite suspicious of this “universal law” often mentioned in Freud’s, which is, I think, linked to a particular context, at a time where scientism stated that to be true, a law had to be applicable to all.

What about your own interpretation of the myth? Based on the story of Oedipus, you invented a concept called “the oracular double”. Could you explain it to us?

I’m developing this notion of oracular double in the first part of The Real and its Double, a book I wrote in 1976 and where I started my researches on the real- which I’m still working on to this day. I’d like to go back to my epiphany, my illumination in Nice. When I heard the France-Musique commentator telling us about Oedipus’s misadventure, I couldn’t help shouting: “What an imbecile, why did he ever leave Corinth for! He’s heading right into trouble…” Why did I react that way? Because I thought things should have happened differently. How differently? I had obviously in mind another story, another fate for Oedipus. But which one? If you really think about it, the scenario of this myth is extremely well constructed: there is no other path for Oedipus to accomplish the oracle’s prophecy in such a direct and plausible way. How could a man ever kill his father and marry his mother otherwise? So, in a way, the myth here represents reality. The real has its own implacable, limpid mechanics. It’s direct. But it can be surprising. It can outwit us. Because we have in mind a “double” of the real: we think that the way things go should take another direction.

For example, we may think that Laius should have acted differently, like killing his son himself or keeping him in the palace, under close surveillance…

No, that’s not it. You have to understand a central idea of my theory: the double, and in this case the oracular double, is not an alternative scenario carefully built. Actually, it’s more an illusion of a double, a simple cloud. When we say that things should have happened differently, we believe that we have in mind something else when, in fact, we don’t. The double’s nature is an elusive one, it has no content, and yet it envelops the real and hides it to us. The double is an illusion of thought and not an illusive thought.

In "The Real and its Double" you write: “Yes, there is something which exists and that we call destiny: but it does not describe the inevitable nature of unfold events, but rather its unpredictable nature.” Could you explain this paradox?

In this beginning of the 21st century, we do not really believe in destiny anymore – at least, not in the Greek sense of the word. And yet, we are keen to accept that reality is what we can’t escape from. Causes and effects are inexorably unfolding. Everything that happens is absolutely necessary. But we can’t predict what will happen tomorrow, in six months, in five years. As a result, everything which happens is both inevitable and confusing.”    

Georges Enescu’s odyssey

Watch the video

Interview with Ingo Metzmacher

8:03 min

Georges Enescu’s odyssey

By Marion Mirande

Georges Enescu's only opera accompanied him for more than twenty years. Oedipe is a 20th century masterpiece. First performed at the Palais Garnier in 1936, it returns to the Paris Opera after an absence of eighty-five years, under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher, who speaks passionately about this music rich in French influences and yet truly unique.


Œdipe by Georges Enesco on l'Opéra chez soi

For his Paris Opera debut, Wajdi Mouawad evokes the life of OEdipus – the man unaware of his own identity...

Œdipe, stronger than destiny

Watch the video

Interview with Christopher Maltman

9:29 min

Œdipe, stronger than destiny

By Marion Mirande

There are few scores for baritone as long and demanding as Œdipe, the title role of Georges Enescu's opera based on the character from Sophocles. A battle against destiny, but also against oneself and one's doubts, a battle which can prove to be paralysing, as Wajdi Mouawad's staging reveals. Christopher Maltman, who performs the role, talks about this epic work and the vocal and physical commitment it requires.


Draw-me Œdipe

Watch the video

Understand the plot in 1 minute

1:40 min

Draw-me Œdipe

By Octave

In 1909, after attending a performance of OEdipus Rex at the Comédie-Française, George Enescu hastened to transcribe the first bars of his one and only opera. Sophocles’ play had the effect of an electroshock on the Romanian composer, spurring him to begin work on his score before he even had a libretto. The completed work would ultimately have its world premiere at the Paris Opera in 1936. The influences of his teacher Fauré, of Stravinsky, Debussy and Romania’s ancestral musical traditions all fuelled an orchestral and vocal composition of unparalleled originality. Surprisingly, despite receiving a rapturous reception, the work was rarely staged at opera houses during the 20th century. For his Paris Opera debut, Wajdi Mouawad evokes the life of OEdipus – the man unaware of his own identity – in a continuum of organic, vegetal, ethereal and aquatic images.  

© Elisa Haberer / OnP

Podcast Œdipe

Listen the podcast

07 min

Podcast Œdipe

By Charlotte Landru-Chandès

"Dance! Sing! 7 minutes at the Paris Opera" offers original incursions into the season thanks to broadcasts produced by France Musique and the Paris Opera. For each opera or ballet production, Charlotte Landru-Chandès (opera) and Jean-Baptiste Urbain (dance), present the works and artists you are going to discover when you attend performances in our theatres.  

  • [TRAILER] ŒDIPE by Georges Enesco
  • [EXTRAIT] ŒDIPE by Georges Enesco
  • [EXTRAIT] ŒDIPE by Georges Enesco (Christopher Maltman)
  • [EXTRAIT] ŒDIPE by Georges Enesco (Christopher Maltman)
  • [EXTRAIT] ŒDIPE by Georges Enesco (Christopher Maltman & Anna-Sophie Neher)
  • Œdipe (saison 21/22) - Acte 4 (Christopher Maltman)

  • Œdipe (saison 21/22) -Acte 2 ( Christopher Maltman et Anne Sofie von Otter)

  • Œdipe (saison 21/22) - Acte 1 (Ekaterina Gubanova)

Access and services

Opéra Bastille

Place de la Bastille

75012 Paris

Public transport

Underground Bastille (lignes 1, 5 et 8), Gare de Lyon (RER)

Bus 29, 69, 76, 86, 87, 91, N01, N02, N11, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Opéra Bastille 34, rue de Lyon 75012 Paris

Book your parking spot

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Opéra Bastille
  • Open 1h before performances and until performances end
  • Get in from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 40 01 17 82

Opéra Bastille

Place de la Bastille

75012 Paris

Public transport

Underground Bastille (lignes 1, 5 et 8), Gare de Lyon (RER)

Bus 29, 69, 76, 86, 87, 91, N01, N02, N11, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Opéra Bastille 34, rue de Lyon 75012 Paris

Book your parking spot

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Opéra Bastille
  • Open 1h before performances and until performances end
  • Get in from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 40 01 17 82

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