Oedipus Rex

Stage oratorio by Stravinsky's (libretto in Latin by J Daniélou and translated from French by Jean Cocteau, after Sophocles). The parts are sung in costume but without action, and the words are in Latin in order not to distract the ordinary listener by verbal associations. In the story, Oedipus unknowingly kills his father, King Laius, and marries his mother, Jocasta. When the truth is revealed to him, he blinds himself in remorse.

It was first produced in Paris at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, on 30 May 1927, but its first stage performance was at the Staatsoper in Vienna, on 23 February 1928.