Rihm: Oedipus

Very interesting but not for everyone
This is a video release of the 1987 world premiere of German composer Wolfgang Rihm's opera "Oedipus". This release is also one of a series of new, important releases from the Berlin Opera on the always relevant Art Haus Musik label. I have only been somewhat aware of Wolfgang Rihm, who was part of a "new wave" of young composers in Germany in the late 1970s and beyond. The story is of course the fairly well known Greek tragedy of the young warrior who strives to be king after successfully passing the riddle posed by the oracle at Delphi. Later we know that the Oedipus had unknowingly killed his real father, marries his actual mother and is brought down by the jealous Creon. Oedipus blinds himself and is doomed to wander as a blind, powerless beggar. Other opera treatments of the Oedipus legend throughout the years have included somewhat successful treatments by, most notably, Stravinsky, Enescu, Purcell and as "Greek" by Mark-Anthony Turnage. While none of these is especially...

From Hamlet to Oedipus, Rihm's operatic anti-heroes
What a pleasant surprise to find that Arthaus Musik was releasing a video of Wolfgang Rihm's 1987 opera "Oedipus," a recording which had apparently been slumbering in the vaults for 26 years!

This is a recording of the premiere performance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in October 1987. From the liner notes I gather that it was broadcast on German television. The work was commissioned by Gotz Friedrich, the stage director of the opera house, following the successful staging of Rihm's ballet Tutuguri in 1982. If you know Rihm's music, you will not be surprised to learn that the score is dark, atonal, and expressionist -- "emotion full of complexity" in Rihm's memorable phrase.

The baritone Andreas Schmidt is absolutely central as Oedipus. He conveys well the intended innocence and bewilderment of the character as it dawns on him what he has done (though one does grow tired of him gazing...



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