Photo by Marc Lazzarini / Standart
Nearly ninety years after its opening in Paris at Opera Garnier, Transylvanian expat pianist Lucian Ban and American violist Mat Maneri present a radical re-imagination of George Enescu’s famous Oedipe opera. For decades, the opera was seen as too difficult to perform, the score and four long acts demanded much from the musicians, but Enescu’s Oedipe has finally begun to receive the attention that it rightly deserves and to be recognized as one of the greatest works in the operatic repertoire.
To reinvent Oedipe for the 21st century, Ban and Maneri streamlined Enescu’s score for a smaller, more flexible ensemble and knew they needed musical cohorts that would be able to immediately understand the project and bring their own personalities into the music. They recruited trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist John Hébert, drummer Tom Rainey, and French clarinetist Louis Sclavis, a legend in the world of contemporary music and improv in Europe. And for the vocal parts, perhaps the most important element of the opera, they invited Jen Shyu and Theo Bleckmann, both brilliant contemporary vocalists, that could handle Enescu’s difficult lines and bring new life to Oedipe Redux.
Maneri and Ban closely follow the narrative and dramaturgy of the libretto but do a radical rewriting of the Enescu score to bring their jazz credo of improvisation into the foreground – they composed interludes to tie the pieces together, and they feature intense soloing from the instrumentalists in various groupings. They kept the original score motives, themes and melodies, but combine Enescu’s music with the freedom of the downtown New York ethos. On top of all this, they had the soaring voices of Jen Shyu and Theo Bleckmann singing Enescu’s parts with visceral abandon. They were encouraged to improvise, and improvise they did. By the end of the 2019 tour, when the music was recorded live at Bimhuis in Amsterdam, they had added acting and movement to their performance.
Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri harness the spirit of George Enescu’s masterwork, Oedipe, and channel it into a modern recreation in their own vernacular. Oedipe Redux is a breathtaking retelling, breathing new life into one of the most storied tales of human drama.
