Two weekends ago, the San Francisco Symphony, under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, paired Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex and his Symphony of Psalms at Davies Symphony Hall in an intriguing semi-staged production by Peter Sellars. I experienced this double-bill on June 10th as a benefit of the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA), which held its annual meeting in the city by the bay.
The two works were separated by just a few years. Stravinsky
completed Oedipus rex in 1927 and the Symphony of Psalms in 1930.
Both pieces, revised in 1948, featured sung texts in Latin and both were
interlaced with narration that was adapted by Jean Cocteau from Sophocles’ play
about a man who unknowingly murdered his father, solved a riddle to save the
town from the plague, then married his mother but later understood what he had
done and in despair blinded himself and became a beggar.
For Oedipus rex, a row of throne-like chairs in an
African motif stretched across the front of the stage at Davies. The orchestra and
Salonen was positioned behind that arrangement, and the men of the San
Francisco Symphony Chorus, in modern everyday clothing, took their places in
the choir loft.
Breezy Leigh in the role of Antigone declaimed the dire
situation for the town of Thebes, beset by the plague. Her gripping delivery jolted
the orchestra and chorus with the latter employing gestures that amplified the situation.
Tenor Sean Panikkar terrifically conveyed the rise and fall of Oedipus. Mezzo J’Nai Bridges created a stricken Jocasta. Baritone
Willard White delivered an ocean of empathy in a trio of roles as Creon, the
Messenger, and the seer Tiresias. Tenor Jose Simerila Romero distinguished himself
as the Shepherd. The orchestra and chorus added superbly to the drama with a crisp
and dynamic performance.
The Symphony of Psalms began with Leigh proclaiming “Praise
the Lord” and “Who will be kind to Oedipus tonight?” Panikkar appeared as the
blind Oedipus, staggered to a place where he laid himself down as if in a grave. Later
he got up and walked off the stage. Was that a resurrection? It seemed that Sellars, in trying to link
the Oedipus story to the Old Testament psalms went a bridge too far and fell off.
Nevertheless, the orchestra sounded robust and the chorus (with
men and women in street dress) sang passionately with outstanding blend and
diction. The Alleluia from Psalm 150 was especially soothing.
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