San Antonio College Library

Join us for a staging of Peter Arnott's translation of Sophocles' masterpiece Oedipus Rex aka Oedipus Tyrannus or simple Oedipus. Set in a time of plague, the hero who solved the riddle of the sphinx, is now King of Thebes and is about to go on another riddle quest to uncover the source of his city's pollution. Peter's line-by-line translation, complete with all the chorus odes, gives the fullest exposure to this conundrum riddle of a play a masterpiece...

The rich string harmonies and textures in the ballet score of Apollon musagete are pleasantly mesmerizing. In contrast, the dramatic and hauntingly compelling opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex is composed of an assemblage of monumental and powerful sounds, with magnificent vocals from the choir and soloists.

This play recounts the story of Oedipus, King of Thebes, a man, who out of stubborn pride, must know the truth at all costs.

"The noted novelist Anthony Burgess has provided, in this translation and adaptation of the Greek classic, a highly dramatic and forceful piece of work, one which is theatrically effective for present-day audiences. It is the version on which was based a major production by the Guthrie Theater Company under the direction of Michael Langham at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The dialogue, though modern, conveys the feeling of the ancient period....