Enesco's “Oedipus” is reborn at the Opéra-Bastille in a beautiful staging by Wajdi Mouawad and with a high-level cast

This is the first passing exam for Alexandre Neef, the director of the Paris Opera. The bar was set high: the opera by Georges Enesco, Oedipus, created in 1936 and since forgotten by the establishment where it was born. An intelligent staging, a magnificent conductor galvanizing the orchestra, a beautiful cast in the service of a demanding and high quality work. Almost flawless … because there are always almost!

The master of Yehudi Menuhin

In the recording -unique to our knowledge and which dated from 1990 of this Oedipus, Yehudi Menuhin pays a moving tribute to the one whose His reputation as a violinist was immense: During all the time spent with … my dear beloved master, the score of his monumental opera, Oedipus, never left him. Day and night, instead of sleeping after or between two concerts, he worked on this considerable work of which one can truly say …: “This is where the soul of Georges Enesco is”. The role of Oedipus was played by José Van Dam, there was also Gabriel Bacquier, Nicolaï Gedda, Brigitte Fassbänder or Barbara Hendricks in the role of Antigone. This did not attract the curiosity of room directors either. The Toulousains du Capitole rode Oedipus in 2008 …

A Romanian writing a French opera located in ancient Greece

Harry Halbreich, the famous musicologist, gives an explanation for this oversight: Enesco’s reputation as a virtuoso, like that of Liszt, overshadowed that of the composer. It may be true. It is also true that Oedipus requires a large distribution, sharp choirs, an orchestra where the wind desk is not spared (including saxophone), breadth and breath. And then, in a country that loves to lock everyone up in their own little box, what is this Romanian who comes to write a French opera (libretto by Edmond Fleg, a somewhat forgotten writer and philosopher, including Jewishness, in these years before the Occupation, did not have to help either to maintain Oedipus in the repertoire) on a subject of ancient Greece? A work where one feels the shadows of Ravel and Fauré but of so many others … Wouldn’t it be better to continue in the “folkloric” vein of his 3rd sonata for violin and piano or his Romanian Rhapsodies (also very beautiful)?

The best of currents of the twentieth century

We will leave these questions unanswered. Especially since we ourselves are very perplexed – a happy perplexity! – listening to this Oedipus who looks like nothing except himself, who, constantly , makes us say, that Ravel (all the beginning in an atmosphere with Daphnis and Chloé) or Fauré and then Stravinsky and then Bartok and then … but no here it is. is something else, and there is talk-singing ( Sprechgesang), in particular with Oedipus himself, and this saxophone which draws for a moment towards jazz or this choir (of old Athenians) so close to those of the Orthodox churches … A strange and gripping score which brings together all that these first 36 years of the twentieth century (and some of the end of the nineteenth) had given of the best but digested, assimilated, integrated , in the service of a project which advances with the force of an arrow -Eesco not allowing itself to be distracted by anything other than what drives the fate of its tragic hero-until the end, this mysterious, humanist end, which surprises us because we were left with the wandering Ulysses, blind, lost old man.

Oedipus or the Revolted Man

The birth of Ulysses, the murder of his father, the enigma solved in front of the Sphinx, the children that he had from his mother, his eyes gouged out, exile, wandering. It is Oedipus king. Enesco (and Fleg) follows Sophocles. They finally condense it with the death of Oedipus, of which Sophocles made Oedipus to Colone, where Oedipus becomes a kind of prophet, announcing the misfortune on Thebes and on his own descendants, attracting the peace that Apollo promised him on the fate of Theseus, king of Athens, and on his city. Apollo, the god who threw misfortune on Oedipus and who ended up forgiving him. Enesco and his librettist then make Oedipus (this was not the case with Sophocles) a being who rebels, who repeats in the very beautiful final scene: I did nothing … I am innocent, innocent, innocent. It is The rebellious man by Camus applied to a time when the gods and fate dictated the fate of beings. The flame that makes man a god, someone says somewhere.

An imaginary strange and elegant

Of course we would have preferred to Fleg’s text, which smacks of his time in his versified libretto ( crowd with joy the pale asphodels!) despite some beautiful formulas ( My eyes run down my cheeks , says Oedipus blinded), a libretto by Sophocles himself! Wajdi Mouawad, who is still a “young” opera director, knows his Sophocles by heart, which he has often staged in the theater. He managed to find, with elegance, a sort of strange universe too, both from distant Greece and from a bizarre imagination that would go from the “kitsch” Orientalisms of the 19th century to Valérian by Luc Besson. It relies for this on the scenography of Emmanuel Clolus, large panels occupying the stage like dark dolmens, mystical source where Oedipus will seek death, silver statues in the style of an Arno Brecker (the Nazi sculptor) emaciated … He also relies on superb costumes – by Emmanuelle Thomas – in the same spirit of legend so personal, with these hairstyles of flowers surrounded by foliage, but not for everyone, and outfits (at Jocasta) in shades of cream and purple imitated from the oldest statues in Crete; only Oedipus, at least until his exile, is dressed in a contemporary way, like a warrior of the 1930s – the time of dictatorships …

A beautiful and homogeneous distribution

Mouawad, and it is Sophocles who blows it to him, but bravo! never forget, however, the presence of the people – the chorus of Greek tragedy, which comments and reacts – even when Enesco has not indicated it. The tragedy of Oedipus is a tragedy of witnesses and aedes. We will be more reserved about the birth of Oedipus – a little long (but it is Enesco’s fault!) And as decorative as it is static – as on this end where Oedipus seems to be walking on water, becoming the guru of future times , which is not exactly the spirit of the libretto, much more reserved, more half-hearted. Details …

From a distribution without a weak link we will retain the magnificent Tiresias imprecator (the one who will reveal the secret of Oedipus) by Clive Bayley – for his debut in Paris the baritone British imposes his great voice and his perfect diction. Also, the handsome watchman of Nicolas Cavallier and a Laurent Naouri always impeccable in Grand-Priest – to him the palm of the most bizarre costume with this headdress in the shape of a tube, almost Egyptian. Yann Beuron’s Laïos is more discreet, and Brian Mulligan’s Creon lacks darkness and presence. On the women’s side, Ekaterina Gubanova succeeds in Jocasta’s despair at the time of the incest revelation, Anna-Sophie Neher is a somewhat fragile Antigone, and Clémentine Margaine is impressive in the role of the Sphinx (in this version, as in Ingres’s painting, the Sphinx is a woman). Finally, in the short role of Mérope, the adoptive mother of Theseus, we are so happy to find Anne Sofie von Otter, voice intact, lovely, not on a large scale but very well projected – a luxury Merope.

The triumph of Christopher Maltman, with the conductor, Ingo Metzmacher

There remains the great triumphant, Christopher Maltman, magnificent Oedipus who, after the hieratic song – and superb in bearing, breath, phrasing, French diction – of the royal warrior becomes overwhelming (anger brutally resolved in despair) in the revelation of the secret; and even more admirable in exile, especially in this capital scene, which we have already mentioned, where Oedipus proclaims, with a sincerity so just but disarming, that he is not guilty of anything. Maltman will be acclaimed, like the conductor Ingo Metzmacher: this one knows how to highlight the beauty of the alliances of stamps, the softness of this music which gives way, in precise scenes, to an overwhelming violence, spared by Metzmacher and his musicians of remarkable way. Beautiful work of the choirs, who have an enormous score to defend and who do it, under the leadership of the new choirmaster Ching-Lien Wu with an enthusiasm which pleases, and according to impeccable movements which participate in the fluidity of the setting. on stage.

Oedipus by Georges Enesco. Directed by Wajdi Mouawad. Soli, opera choir and orchestra, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. Opera-Bastille, Paris. Next performances on October 5, 8, 11 and 14.

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