Oedipus Rex

A special event born from the collaboration between the Haydn Foundation and the Teatro Stabile di Bolzano brings one of the most powerful works of the twentieth century to the stage of the Teatro Comunale: Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky. Guest of honour is Toni Servillo, a master of theatre and cinema, who leads the audience with his narrative voice through the tragic story of Oedipus – from his banishment from the family to the bitter realisation of having killed his father, and the dramatic consequences of that act. Stravinsky’s composition remains ambitious even today: a Greek myth adapted into French by his friend, the poet Jean Cocteau, and then translated into Latin to resemble a sacred work. The hybrid choice between opera and oratorio – a lyrical piece without stage movement – lends the work a frozen, dramatic intensity. Its musical architecture boldly draws from Baroque sacred music and Romantic symphonism, while retaining the obsessive rhythmic patterns that reveal the composer’s modernity and unmistakably Russian spirit. A multifaceted performance that manages to be magically rigorous, austere, coherent and timeless – as only a true ancient tragedy can be.