Access to watch Oedipus Rex concluded on July 18, 2021. We hope you enjoyed the digital performance.
Dive Deeper into our past digital production of Oedipus Rex with three extra videos.
In the first, get a quick history lesson on Stravinsky's work from Maestro Conlon. Then go behind the scenes with the cast and crew to see how our stream came together. Finish off with an inside look at how Manual Cinema creates animations.
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Synopsis: A speaker appears, to narrate each episode of the story before it happens. He warns us we will watch Oedipus falling into a trap waiting for him since his birth...
The city of Thebes is afflicted by plague. In despair, the inhabitants turn to their king, Oedipus, who promises help. His ambitious brother-in-law, Creon, has learned from the oracle that the plague has been sent because the murderer of the previous king, Laius, is still living in the city.
Oedipus vows to find this man. He consults with the blind Tiresias who unwillingly tells him: "The murderer of the king is a king." Jocasta, the widow of Laius and now the wife of Oedipus, tells her husband that Laius met his death 12 years before at a crossroads. Oedipus realizes he himself is the murderer.
News arrives of the death of Oedipus’s supposed father, Polybus, and the king discovers that he was adopted after being found abandoned as a baby on Mount Cithaeron. Hearing this, Jocasta realizes that Oedipus, her husband and the murderer of her former husband, is their long-lost son.
Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus, taking her pin of gold, puts out his own eyes. Blinded, he reappears once more in front of the citizens, before turning away and leaving Thebes forever.
—Boosey & Hawkes
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