The legend of Oedipus was familiar to him: In his 30-year career, Mouawad has staged Sophocles Oedipus the King three times. When Neef first approached him, Mouawad was less concerned with the score than with the libretto. ∿or a lot of composers writing after the Holocaust, it couldnt be tonal music anymore, for a long time. ∺fter 1945, I think the music had fallen out of fashion, Neef said of Enescus lush score. The New York Times reported in 1936 that French composer and critic Reynaldo Hahn had described it as imposing, lofty, minutely elaborated and always compelling admiration. Neef believes the course of history, rather than quality, explains the long lack of appetite for Oedipe, which earned positive reviews upon its premiere. The North American premiere took place at the University of Illinois in 2005, while Achim Freyer directed an acclaimed staging at the Salzburg Festival two years ago, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, who will return to the score in Paris. Enescus only opera, it had its premiere at the companys smaller, ornate Palais Garnier in 1936 but has never been revived there, even as other opera houses took a belated interest in it. The return of Oedipe to the Paris stage has been a long time coming.
Sometimes, you almost need to encourage him not to be too nice. With Oedipe, my hope was that he would pull the whole company together. His strength as an artist is that he really wants to work with humans, Neef added in an interview in his office. In his last job, leading the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Neef coproduced Mouawads first stab at opera, a 2016 production of Mozarts The Abduction From the Seraglio that Neef calls one of the most satisfying experiences that Ive ever had with a director. It is no coincidence that he turned to Mouawad. It is the first production commissioned by Alexander Neef, who took over as the Operas general director last year. So Oedipe, which opens at the Opera Bastille, the companys larger theater, on Monday, may just inaugurate a new era. (While some performances took place in September and October last year, the company didnt resume its regular schedule until late May.) And that was before the pandemic forced the cancellation of over a years worth of performances. In late 2019 and early 2020, labor strikes over a pension policy overhaul resulted in a 45 million euro deficit in a budget hovering around 230 million euros. Trauma is not a bad way of describing the past few years at the fractious Paris Opera. I feel like Im stepping into a traumatized world that now believes its trauma is the norm. Its odd, because I hear, Its wonderful, you say hello, Mouawad added. When he approached the companys technical crew to explain to them the story of Oedipe, a rarity from the 1930s based on the Greek myth, their reaction was similar, he said in an interview few directors ever bothered to pay them much mind.
Mouawad, 52, who runs the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris, was taken aback to find the choristers had never received anything like it. He put together a glossary of all the obscure references in the libretto like the water of Castalia, a sacred spring in Delphi and sent it to the chorus. Before rehearsals for his staging of George Enescus Oedipe at the Paris Opera, playwright and director Wajdi Mouawad did something unusual.
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