Oedipus der Tyrann

SYNOPSIS

It was prophesised that Prince Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. For this reason, he left home and on his way blindly killed a strange man. Oedipus finally reached Thebes which was tyrannised by the Sphinx. The Corinthian succeeded in ridding the city of the Sphinx and the citizens were so overjoyed that the young man was appointed as a regent and married to the widow of the recently murdered King Laius.
This state of happiness was however short-lived, as a devastating plague spread through the city. On the search for a solution, Oedipus sent his brother-in-law Creon to Delphi. The oracle answered: the plague would only come to an end when the mystifying murder of Laius was solved.
Oedipus made all possible efforts to find the murderer. During his investigations, he summoned the blind seer Tiresias. His answers to Oedipus’s questions were however so elusive that the king believed that he was also being considered as one of the suspects. Enraged, he accused Tiresias of planning a coup d’état with his brother-in-law Creon.
Queen Jocasta attempts to pacify her husband: how could Laius have been killed by Oedipus when he was in actual fact murdered by a wayfarer? Oedipus is unnerved: could it be possible that the man he slayed on his travels was actually King Laius who was his own father? Queen Jocasta also attempts to disprove this suspicion: Laius’s descendent was abandoned while still a small baby, as an oracle had prophesised that Laius would be killed by his own son.
In this situation, a messenger from Corinth brings the news that the King of Corinth has died and that Oedipus was to be proclaimed as his successor. Jocasta is exultant: now Oedipus could no longer kill his father as he had now apparently died a natural death. Oedipus is not convinced: in his youth, he had heard the rumours at the Corinthian court that Oedipus was in actual fact not the real son of the king.
The Corinthian messenger confirms this rumour: the young son of Laius had not been abandoned, but given in sympathy to the Corinthian royal couple to bring up as their own child. Jocasta realises in horror that she has married her own son and hangs herself in her shame. Oedipus stabs his own eyes out with the pin of Jocasta’s brooch.

COMMENTARY

Orff was in the middle of rehearsals for the first performance of his Antigonae when he resolved to set a further translation by Hölderlin of a Sophocles play, Oedipus der Tyrann, to music, but it was not until after the completion of Trionfo di Afrodite that he was properly able to set to work on his planned work.
For Antigonae, Orff had created a completely new orchestration, whereas for Oedipus he was able to rely on his previous experience and build up on this with additional developments. He was also able to utilise the declamatory style developed in Antigonae, but created even more space for the spoken word in his new work, partly in recitative style and partly in the form of spoken “arias” or melodramas – all aimed at presenting the reflection of the figures in a more evocative manner. It is no coincidence that Orff speaks of singer-actors in this composition and also no coincidence that he allots the role of Creon to an actor without stipulating a particular vocal range in the score.