# Enescu: Oedipe



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Enescu's _Oedipe_ is currently on the 67th tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works.

Wikipedia has an article about it.

Here is a quote from a source that I can no longer find, but I suspect it was from somewhere on this site:



> As far as beauty goes, this is one of the most lavishly orchestrated music I've ever heard, tonal with dissonances that are still unbelievably beautiful. As for the libretto, it's the only controversial thing about it. As for popularity, people around the forums might not know about this opera, but it's enjoyed a cult following since the day it premiered. The drama is palpable throughout, and there are many scenes that are particularly bone-chilling (the sphinx's death, Oedipus arriving at his death site, etc.). The third act culminates in an enormous climax that the entire opera has been leading up to, and it truly delivers, while the fourth act is the beautiful catharsis, all played out by Enescu's masterly sense of unfolding drama and musical development. Also, for those into this sort of thing, the play of leitmotifs is so complex as to be almost impossible to follow, but it is able to be listened to at any level and still be very accessible and dramatic. Indeed, many professional critics had no idea about the leitmotif system employed until studying the score intensively. So I'd push this opera for the top 10, but don't mind if it doesn't make it as long as it's in the final 100.


And this link no longer works but it was from somewhere on this site as well:



Orfeo said:


> Enescu: Œdipe (Oedipus), a masterpiece in its suspense, subtlety, humanity, relevance, and everything else in the true meaning of art.


This is from an amazon review of the Foster recording on EMI:



> And here we have Enescu's magnificent Oedipe, a transcendent work that deserves to be among the greatest operas of the 20th Century....
> 
> The listener is bathed in waves of lush orchestration in a style not beholden to Wagner or almost anyone else; certainly the influence of Zemlinsky, Schreker, and Szymanowski can be discerned, although Enescu incorporates slides, half-tones, and singspiel atypical to tonal composers into an effective amalgam. The dissonance never overwhelms the momentum of the music. Enescu and his librettist Edmond Fleg have humanized Oedipus, making him more than a victim of a tragic fate. Indeed, the answer to the Sphinx's riddle, that mankind is stronger than Destiny, becomes bitterly ironic when Oedipus realizes that his destiny is immutable.
> 
> ...


Here is a review of the Naxos recording from arkivmusic:



> Enescu's _Oedipe_ is the antithesis of Stravinsky's more or less contemporary setting of the story: tonally opulent where Stravinsky's is severe and hard, effusive where Stravinsky's is compact, luxuriously curved where Stravinsky's is brittle and angular, emotionally enveloping where Stravinsky's is self-consciously distant, rhapsodic where Stravinsky's is rigorous (indeed, one of Enescu's favorite markings is senza rigore). Enescu's patient wash of rich post-impressionistic textures and his rhythmically supple declamatory style suggest a prime source in _Pelléas_. But _Oedipe_ is darker and more violent. Its vocal writing is more extreme (including a fair amount of Enescu's equivalent of Sprechstimme); and even though its whispers are as subtle as anything in Debussy's opera, both in its explosive choral outbursts and in its lacerating cries of deep psychological trauma, it's less intimate, more public. It's not atonal in the sense, say, that _Wozzeck_ is; but Enescu's harmonies are consistently unstable (especially in the brief quarter-tone writing), and while they recognize tonal centers, they tend to resist them. The orchestration is consistently evocative, too, and sometimes surprising (e.g., the saxophone at a crucial point in Oedipus's climactic act III speech, the musical saw at the end of the confrontation with the Sphinx).


So that's what _some_ people think.

What about you? *Do you like this work? Do you love it? Why? What do you like about it? Do you have any reservations about it?*[/Quote][/Quote]


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Like most of Enescu's music, this is an extraordinary, powerful and beautiful work. I have the EMI recording. If I ever want to see a live production I suppose I'll have to find one in Europe. It would be a good choice for Santa Fe to do, that's for sure.

Enescu barely hangs onto a very tiny place in the repertoire because of that Romanian Rhapsody no. 1. The symphonies are excellent - I really love the 3rd, but they're not audience pleasers like Dvorak, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and friends. His music seems to be written for the true connoisseur. The Decet for winds is a terrific piece, and the first music of his that I ever played. He was an amazing, staggeringly talented musician: world class violinist AND pianist, conductor, composer - he could do it all. But time has passed him by.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

mbhaub said:


> Like most of Enescu's music, this is an extraordinary, powerful and beautiful work. I have the EMI recording. If I ever want to see a live production I suppose I'll have to find one in Europe. It would be a good choice for Santa Fe to do, that's for sure.
> 
> Enescu barely hangs onto a very tiny place in the repertoire because of that Romanian Rhapsody no. 1. The symphonies are excellent - I really love the 3rd, but they're not audience pleasers like Dvorak, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and friends. His music seems to be written for the true connoisseur. The Decet for winds is a terrific piece, and the first music of his that I ever played. He was an amazing, staggeringly talented musician: world class violinist AND pianist, conductor, composer - he could do it all. But time has passed him by.


It's not too late. We might grow into him yet.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I suspect _Oedipe_ has been a mite overpraised, as often happens with remarkable but neglected works. My hearing of it impressed me unevenly, but it picks up steam as it goes and leaves a strong and moving impression. I'd call it a near-masterpiece, probably Enescu's finest achievement, and I agree that it should be in the repertoires of opera houses and baritones with the dramatic gifts to portray its title character. The EMI recording with Jose van Dam is very good.


----------



## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I love it, another of those slightly off the beaten track operas that deserves better representation. I have both Forster and Gielen, really disappointed with the latter, alas, poor recording and meh singing.

But the EMI set is a gem. Jose van Dam is wonderful. Oedipus himself cuts a tragic figure, as he has since antiquity, but Enescu clearly empathises with him, and he cuts a major operatic figure as a result. Anyone else here find the Sphinx brilliantly creepy? Or the final scenes very moving?


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

^^^ Love the sphinx! You're making me want to listen to the opera again.


----------

