Old Testament Meets Ancient Greeks at the S.F. Symphony
Composer Igor Stravinsky had created a model hybrid with his “Oedipus Rex.” So why not hybridize further with brainstorms of the mercurial Stage Director Peter Sellars?
We thus ended up with a Stravinsky-Sellars double bill of “Oedipus” and that deft choral-orchestral companion “Symphony of Psalms”—Old Testament visionaries and Greeks in a strange choral-orchestral amalgam.
By dramatizing the two neoclassical works in semi-staged fashion, Oedipus got to play in both ends, though mute in the second, which has no solo roles at all.
By linking the two innovative pieces nearly a century old, Sellars attacked structural problems in the first: a haughty speaker lecturing us on what’s next, and long bland solos for Oedipus’ mother Jocasta. He totally rewrote and expanded all the narrations, now a theatrical tour de force by a raging Antigone, while turning Jocasta into an emphatic soloist full of fire and frustration.
Stravinsky’s original had been an ancient-Greek drama out of Sophocles. The arrogant King Oedipus was damned grabbing power. He felt secure as the oracle was telling him his fate: improbably, that he would murder the King Laius and then marry his own mother.
After doing these unwittingly, Oedipus is so guilt-ridden he obliterates his eyes with stones and finishes totally blind.
So in one of his inspired projects, Stravinsky, the mercurial chameleon among composers, took the ancient Greek play, turned it into a opera-oratorio hybrid, using a Latin text in the sung parts for his French audiences. Sellars’ semi-staging took many liberties, not the least of them adding silly semaphoric gesticulation for the outstanding SF Symphony Chorus men, and adding a pantomime in the “Symphony of Psalms” for a mute Oedipus in the second. There’s now also a supplementary solo dance part, beautifully executed by the lithe Laurel Jenkins.
And, to hybridize further, Sellars moved it all to Africa, with wooden totems worthy of museums by way of décor. Only all the protagonists were in Western modern dress.
Somehow the ancient Geek culture was linked up June 10 with an Old-Testament work in a non sequitur combination that could set lesser artists spinning in their grave. But Stravinsky, among the most versatile composers that ever lived, could have been most amused by this bizarre outcome.
A strong all-minority cast was capped by actress Breezy Leigh in the narration, with Sean Panikkar in the title role, mezzo J’nai Bridges as Jocasta, and bass-baritone Willard White in multiple parts. A lot of art work suggesting a major Central African court went uncredited, perhaps because this Stravinsky-Sellars mélange had already played numerous venues with carry-over furniture available.
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY and men of the SFS Chorus in a Stravinsky-Sellars double bill, semi-staged. Through June 12, Davies Hall, S.F. For SFS info: (415) 864-6000, or go online: www.sfsymphony.org.
