Oedipus Rex (opera) - Performance History

Performance History

The work is sometimes performed in the concert hall as an oratorio, as it was at its original performance in the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris on May 30, 1927, and at its American premiere the following year given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Harvard Glee Club.

It has also been presented on stage as an opera, the first such performance being at the Vienna State Opera on 23 February 1928. It was subsequently presented three times by the Santa Fe Opera in 1960, 1961, and 1962 with the composer in attendance.

In 1960 at Sadler’s Wells in London, a production by Colin Graham, with set by Michel Saint-Denis and conducted by Colin Davis was given. Oedepus was sung by Australian tenor Ronald Dowd with actor Michael Hordern as narrator. Although the narration was in English, the company moved from its normal English-language practice and the singing remained in the original Latin.

A production directed by Julie Taymor starring Philip Langridge, Jessye Norman, Min Tanaka, and Bryn Terfel was performed at the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in Japan in 1992 and filmed by Taymor for television. Another filmed rendition survives from 1973 when Leonard Bernstein conducted it during his sixth and last lecture for the Charles Eliot Norton chair at Harvard University.