photo by by Henry Heleotis
tenor Anthony Dean Griffey
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The New York Philharmonic is presenting a three-week festival, at Avery Fisher Hall through May 8, entitled "The Russian Stravinsky," with principally Russian and American forces, under conductor Valery Gergiev, and "Oedipus Rex" (1926-27, revised 1948), the grand and stylized 'opera-oratorio,' in Latin, after Sophocles, that Igor Stravinsky wrote with poet and playwright Jean Cocteau, and that is as likely to be encountered in the concert hall as in the opera house, figures into two of the programs. I heard "Oedipus" on its first night, April 28, at the start of the second week of this consideration of Stravinsky's works.

Anthony Dean Griffey, taking the title role of the cursed King of Thebes for the first time, and Waltraud Meier, making her Philharmonic debut as Queen Jocasta, his wife and mother, sang their neo-Classical music, solos and an ominous duet, with intensity. Lending the part of proud Oedipus, first figuratively and then literally blind, his strong, head tone-tinged tenor, Griffey spat out the repeated word "cecidi" (I killed)-referring to Laius, the old man ("senem") he did not know was the king, his father-with vehemence, and, near the end, sang the words "exsulto" (I exult)-in the aria "Nonne monstrum rescituri" (If the mystery is not explained)-and "Lux"-starting his last line, "Lux facta est!" (All is made clear)-in beautiful, quiet head voice. Mezzo-soprano Meier brought dramatic hauteur to her scornful diatribe "Nonne erubescite, reges" (Are you not ashamed, my lords). Mikhail Petrenko sang his three-pronged assignment-Creon, Tiresias, and the messenger-in a dark-hued, if somewhat shallow bass. Alexander Timchenko made the shepherd's fateful disclosure of Oedipus' origins in a lean, wiry tenor that contrasted with Griffey's full-bodied one. The cries of "Gloria!" hailing Jocasta, as Act One ends and Act Two begins, and the final "Ecce! Regem Oedipoda," describing the bloody and blinded, shunned and humbled Oedipus, found the men of the chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre, for which Gergiev serves as artistic and general director, and the players of the Philharmonic going at fullest, ringing tilt. The remainder of the chorus' responsibility here consisted of salutes, commentary, and filling us in on the offstage double tragedy, Jocasta's suicide and Oedipus' gouging out his eyes with her brooch. The presence of actor Jeremy Irons, narrating in English, lent the proceedings a most classic, "Masterpiece Theatre" air.

On this night and the following one, the program began with rarity "Zvezdolikiy" (Star-Faced One, 1911-12, premiered 1939), a short cantata, dedicated to Claude Debussy, with spiritual/mystical text taken from poet Konstantin Balmont's "Zelyonïy vertograd" (A Green Garden), sung and played with hushed reverence by the Mariinsky chorus and the Philharmonic. In the Violin Concerto in D (1931), lively, then contemplative, then lively again, Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos played the lyrical solos, particularly wide-ranging in the fourth and final movement, the Capriccio.

On April 30 and May 1 at 8 p.m., "Orpheus" precedes "Oedipus Rex." "Renard" and "L'Histoire du soldat" (May 2 at 3 p.m.); Symphony in C, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, and "Petrushka" (May 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m.); and Symphony in Three Movements, Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, and "The Rite of Spring" (May 7 at 8 p.m. and 8 at 11 a.m.) are the remaining works to be performed. For tickets, ranging in price from $29, or 31, to 72, 109 or 112, depending on the concert, visit www.nyphil.org, telephone 212/875-5656, or visit the Avery Fisher Hall box office at Lincoln Center.