In spite of its reputation as a masterpiece, acquired several decades ago, George Enescu’s Œdipe is rarely performed on the operatic circuit. The Monnaie’s production is therefore something of an occasion. Leo Hussain is the ideal conductor for the Romanian composer’s work. After Janáček last season and Ligeti two years ago, this young English conductor is now ready to tackle his third work by an important composer of the 20th century. On this occasion he finds himself, once again, working with Alex Ollé, the director with whom he produced the acclaimed Grand Macabre.

An opera like Enescu’s Œdipe should have been part of the repertoire long ago. How come this is still not the case?
Honestly, I don’t understand why this work is not performed more often! At the time it was written it would have been difficult to perform by an average size opera company: it requires a large orchestra and a large choir, plus a large number of singers and it has one very heavy role… But today we put on other works that impose more or less the same constraints such as Berg’s Wozzeck or Britten’s Peter Grimes. So, I don’t understand either why Œdipe is not part of the repertoire. It is a splendid piece with a very personal musical language yet still anchored firmly in the Central European tradition. I sincerely hope that a robust production with great artists like La Fura dels Baus will finally give it the permanent place in the repertoire that it deserves.

How would you characterise Enescu’s style?
In fact Enescu was too good in too many areas: he had a career as a violinist, teacher and conductor which sadly left him little time for composing. It is difficult to define the style of someone who wrote so little, because each work is quite particular… Even though Œdipe is not revolutionary in the formal sense and belongs totally in the lyrical tradition, it is fair to say that it combines both the new and the traditional. Enescu’s style in Œdipe can be compared to that of Leoš Janáček. There are new sounds and colours but the harmonic language is not strikingly new. His musical language is built, little by little, on what already existed; it is therefore not revolutionary, rather evolutionary. Enescu’s style is innovative but does not reject what went before.

The influence of Romanian folk music on his style is often alluded to. Is that your opinion, too?
The influence is there certainly, but we do Enescu a disservice by insisting on this. His tone and melodies draw from this source but he is no more a composer of folk music than Bartók! He was also influenced by folk music but it didn’t dominate his style. A more interesting comparison would be with Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, which Enescu admitted himself had influenced him greatly. The orchestral writing and the force of the orchestra is very similar in both Œdipe and Pelléas. The difference is in the vocal lines: with Enescu the melodic profile is far more lyrical whereas with Debussy it remains more prosodic. But Enescu also follows the prosody in his rhythms and he was interested in applying speech rhythms to the text! In that respect he is in the same tradition as Janáček!

Certain elements in Œdipe makes one think of Schoenberg, for example his use of the “Sprechgesang”…
Absolutely. Even if his music remains tonal, we still think of Enescu as a man of his time. It is obvious that he was interested in what was going on beyond the borders of Romania; he had a very curious and open mind. We can feel in his music that he was an experienced musician who had travelled a lot and absorbed a lot of influences. But – and this is important – his influences were totally assimilated, they were never included or copied in his music as they stood!

How did he write for the voice?
The two key words to explain this are melody and lyricism. Even when he characterises the most complex figures, such as Jocasta, he still writes unbelievably melodic outbursts. It is a melodic writing coupled with his interest in conveying the rhythym of the spoken word - like Janáček.

Was he also a great orchestrator?
In Œdipe Enescu is composing for an enormous orchestra but his orchestration is never ponderous. He is very aware of the needs of the voice and is always careful to prevent the orchestra overwhelming it. So I am not too worried about the balance between the singers and the orchestra. This allows the conductor to concentrate on the orchestral colours, which are particularly rich in this case. In fact we are on the same wavelength as Debussy’s Pelléas where the orchestra almost gives the impression of an underlying symphonic poem.

A work which is virtually carried by a lone singer is unusual, isn’t it?
Œdipe is, above all, an ensemble performance: the role of Œdipe is just one role supported by the cast around it. I have never conducted a work where the principal role is so dominant! The whole work depends on the vocal interpretation of this role: it is an enormous responsibility for each singer! We can count ourselves lucky to have two such singers as Dietrich Henschel and Andrew Schroeder in this production. I can imagine that the weight of this role could be frightening and that could be one of the reasons why this work is not performed very often… Because the leading role was judged to be too heavy this has constantly questioned the feasibility of producing it. However today there are singers ready to tackle this role: we should be grateful to them and take up the challenge alongside them!

Do you feel a personal affinity for this work?
First of all the myth of Oedipus is of everlasting importance. To bring out the relevance of these eternal themes is La Fura dels Baus’s speciality. I am particularly thrilled that they are responsible for the staging of this production, for it is a perfect marriage between their staging and the opera. Secondly this opera belongs to a period that I am passionate about. Œdipe was composed during the same period as the late operas of Janáček, just slightly after Berg’s Wozzeck and just before Britten’s first operas. The first half of the 20th century is a fascinating period in the history of opera: the genre was fighting to find its identity in the midst of the new waves in music and that produced some captivating results. There is such a multitude of styles; everything is going in different directions…

There must still be lots of works to discover from that period, mustn’t there?
Without a doubt. And today enough time has passed for us to be able to cast a fresh look at these works. Rest assured that that is certainly the case with Œdipe. I can’t wait to get started on directing at the Monnaie!

Interview by Reinder Pols