Oedipus Rex & The Rake's Progress - English National Opera Guide 43

Stravinsky's genius for the stage is here represented by two very different works

Oedipus Rex (1927) is the fruit of a collaboration with Jean Cocteau, in which the Sophocles tragedy is pared down to make an opera oratorio of overwhelming impact

Judith Weir analyses how this is achieved: the Latin text has an immediacy which is sometimes even comic, and the vibrant rhythms are reminiscent of the Italian operatic tradition explored by David Nice in his analysis of the score

The libretto of The Rake's Progress (1951) by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman is one of the greatest English opera texts

In a survey of the composition period, Roger Savage examines the contributions of the different collaborators.

REVIEWS

'Brilliantly produced and superb value' ~ Sunday Times

'All these will provide the new opera-goer with food for thought' ~ Daily Telegraph

'Wholehearted recommendation of this valuable new series' ~ TLS