Oedipus Rex
Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir
Event Slider
Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Thursday, 20:00
- 19:00 / Cancelled 19:00 / Sold out Friday, 19:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
- 31,00 € – 70,00 €
Subscriptions
Renewals: 25 – 27 May
New: 15 – 17 Jun
Single tickets
Online priority booking (Cartão Gulbenkian Mais): 29 Jun, 10:00
Online booking: 30 Jun, 10:00
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
20% – Over 65
10% – 30 to 65
- Conductor
- Erika Baikoff Soprano
- Mezzo-Soprano
- Russell Thomas Tenor
- Paul Gay Bass-Baritone
- Günther Groissböck Bass
- João Reis Narrator
-
Gulbenkian Choir
Coro Gulbenkian was founded in 1964 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a full symphonic body of around 100 singers. The choir joins the Orquestra Gulbenkian and other orchestras to perform Classical, Romantic and Contemporary choral-symphonic repertoire, but can also perform a cappella. It has performed – and often premiered – many 20th century works by Portuguese and international composers.
Coro Gulbenkian has been invited to collaborate with major international orchestras, under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, John Nelson, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frans Brüggen, Franz Welser-Möst, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, René Jacobs and Leonard Slatkin, among others.
Besides its regular season of concerts in Lisbon and frequent national tours, Coro Gulbenkian has repeatedly toured Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
Coro Gulbenkian has recorded extensively for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Cascavelle, Musifrance, as well as FNAC-Music, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Early-Renaissance polyphony to Xenakis. Several of these albums received international awards.
Michel Corboz was the Principal Conductor between 1969 and 2019. Jorge Matta and Inês Tavares Lopes are currently the Associate and Assistant conductors, respectively.
-
Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
-
Hannu Lintu
Music Director
“Dynamic and sharp on the podium” (Bachtrack) and with an “extreme clarity of purpose, every detail worth noting” (Los Angeles Times), Hannu Lintu maintains his reputation as one of the world’s finest conductors. This season Lintu continues his tenures as Music Director of Orquestra Gulbenkian and Chief Conductor of Finnish National Opera and Ballet, proving himself a master of both symphonic and operatic repertoire, as well as beginning his tenures as Artistic Partner of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the International Sibelius Festival.
Last season also saw Lintu’s appointment as Music Director of Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 2026/27, where he will appear this season for several performances, including for Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Shostakovich’s 7th Leningrad Symphony. Other highlights include returns to the BBC, St Louis, Toronto, Baltimore and Detroit Symphonies, as well as productions of Strauss’ Elektra and a world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s The Morning Star at Finnish National Opera.
Symphonic highlights of recent years have seen Lintu conduct the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic (including an immediate re-invitation from the orchestra to perform at Bravo! Vail Festival), Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Radio France, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, London Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, St Louis Symphony, and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
As an expert in both operatic as well as symphonic repertoire, Lintu’s recent opera highlights have included Enescu’s Œdipe with the Vienna Symphony at Bregenz Festspiele, Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer at Opera de Paris and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at Bayerische Staatsoper as a guest conductor, as well as multiple productions at Finnish National Opera and Ballet, including a recent multi-season Ring Cycle, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a choregraphed reimagining of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Puccini’s Turandot, Richard Strauss’ Salome, and Britten’s Billy Budd.
Lintu has made several recordings for Ondine, BIS Records, Naxos, Avie Records and Hyperion Records. His diverse discography comprises recordings of Magnus Lindberg’s orchestral works, the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Stephen Hough, and Lutoslawski’s Symphonies Nos. 1-4, all with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. His often-gilded work boasts two International Classical Music Awards and several nominations for Gramophone and GRAMMY awards in recognition of recording projects such as Bartók’s Violin Concertos with Christian Tetzlaff, works by Sibelius featuring Anne Sofie von Otter, Rautavaara’s Kaivos, and the Violin Concertos of Sibelius and Thomas Adès with Augustin Hadelich and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lintu studied cello and piano at the Sibelius Academy, where he also later studied conducting with Jorma Panula. He participated in masterclasses with Myung-Whun Chung at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and took first prize at the Nordic Conducting Competition in Bergen in 1994.
-
Victoria Karkacheva
Mezzo-Soprano
Victoria Karkacheva’s current and upcoming engagements include Olga Eugene Onegin at Teatro Real Madrid, return to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Polina Pique Dame and Pénélope, the title role of Carmen at Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli, and appearances at The Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, and Wiener Staatsoper.
Recent highlights include Charlotte Werther at Teatro alla Scala, return to Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Olga Eugene Onegin, Polina Pique Dame, Hélène in the new Dmitri Tcherniakov's production of War and Peace at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Judith in a new production of Bluebeard’s Castle at the Opéra de Lyon, which was recorded and broadcast by Medici TV.
On a concert stage she performed Missa Solemnis with Quincena Musical de San Sebastián, a concert version of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Josep Pons, Iolanta with Kirill Petrenko in Berliner Philharmoniker and Baden-Baden Festival, debut with Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in Mahler’s Third Symphony and with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, recital with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.
An alumna of the prestigious Young Artist Programme at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, she made her operatic debut as Aglaya in a new production of Weinberg’s The Idiot.
Victoria is a First Prize Winner and Birgit Nilsson Prize - Operalia 2021, First Prize Winner - Tenor Viñas Competition 2020.
Born in the Volgograd region, in 2015 she graduated from the Popov Academy of Choral. In the productions of the Academy’s opera studio, she has performed the parts of Lyubasha in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Olga Eugene Onegin, Third Lady Die Zauberflöte, Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro, Sorceress Dido and Aeneas.
Claude Debussy
Igor Stravinsky
The first programme of Hannu Lintu’s fourth season as Principal Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra highlights Stravinsky’s magnetic work Oedipus Rex. Based on Sophocles’ play of the same name, which tells the tragedy of a man unable to escape the destiny foretold to him, the composer collaborated with Jean Cocteau on the libretto for the work, which he described as an ‘opera-oratorio’, instructing that it should be staged with minimal movement and the singers’ faces concealed by masks.
Photo © Jorge Carmona
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.