STRAVINSKY'S OEDIPUS REX PROKOFIEFF'S LE PAS D'ACIER April 1931 Program

Description: STRAVINSKY'S OEDIPUS REX PROKOFIEFF'S LE PAS D'ACIER AMERICAN STAGE PREMIERES Directed by LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI Appearing by kind permission of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association at the METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE PHILADELPHIA April 10, 11, 13, 1931 Presented for the benefit of the National Music League and a Composers' Fund by THE LEAGUE OF COMPOSERS and the PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION FOREWORD BY LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI W HEN art expresses ideas and emotions that are fundamental, it knows no limit of period or country. The music of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex is in places markedly Russian, as for instance the melodic and rhythmic design of the phrases sung by the shepherd and the messenger after the announcement of the death of Polybus. In other places the feeling of Greek tragedy inspires the music of Stravinsky, as for example the broad sweeping strokes of the melodic line of Creon's speech, or the frenetic agitation of the chorus near the end. But in general the music is detached from national characteristics - - non-realistic, abstract. It is dark, archaic, sombre in color, while in form it is one long line of ever increasing ominous tension. Both Sophocles and Stravinsky accept completely the primitive superstitious ideas on which the tragedy is based. To the modern mind the fact that Oedipus is unconscious that he kills his father and marries his mother would destroy the tragic conflict. But seen from a universal angle this becomes the symbol of all human action leading to pain and death through ignorance. So through new forms Stravinsky expresses eternal ideas. In searching for an eloquent visual presentation of Oedipus Rex, a type of mobile sculpture has been evolved, in which plastic figures, monumental in height, represent in an impersonal and abstract manner, the conflicting personalities of the tragedy. Prokofieff's Pas d'Acier is a vigorous dynamic painting in tone of the transition period through which the Western

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Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

End Time: 2024-10-29T22:00:58.000Z

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