Greek Tragedy and Mythology

Two of Stravinsky’s most searing mythological compositions were written back-to-back during the 1920s, when his music was adopting a new clarity of structure and texture—a style now called Neoclassicism. Maestro Charles Dutoit and The Philadelphia Orchestra continue their contribution to the first annual Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts with two masterworks from early-20th-century Paris. Apollon musagète tells the story of Apollo’s consecration of the muses, while Oedipus Rex attempts to leave Sophocles’s original play behind, as Stravinsky said, to distill its essence toward “a greater degree of focus on a purely musical dramatization.” Dutoit leads a stellar cast led by one of the Metropolitan Opera’s most stalwart lyric tenors, Paul Groves. He is joined by German-born mezzo Petra Lang as Oedipus’s mother, Jocasta, Polish bass-baritone Robert Gierlach as his Uncle Creon, British bass-baritone David Wilson-Johnson as the seer who understands the king’s dark truth, and the men of the Philadelphia Singers Chorale.

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Charles Dutoit Conductor
Paul Groves Tenor (Oedipus)
Petra Lang Mezzo-soprano (Jocasta)
Robert Gierlach Bass-baritone (Creon/Messenger)
David Wilson-Johnson Baritone (Tiresias)
Matthew Plenk Tenor (Shepherd)
David Howey Narrator
Men of the Philadelphia Singers Chorale

Stravinsky Apollon musagète
Stravinsky Oedipus Rex

Free PreConcert Conversations will take place on April 28 and 30 in the Rendell Room, and April 29 in Verizon Hall, 1 hour before the concert.