Handsome, unabridged edition of modern masterpiece renowned for brilliant orchestration, glowing color, evocative power. Reprinted from authoritative Russian edition. Includes list of characters and instruments, plus new English translation of Table of Contents.

Both Pizzetti and Stravinsky were drawn to the subject of Oedipus Rex, but in very different contexts. The 24-year-old Pizzetti was commissioned to write Three Orchestral Preludes for use in a theatrical production. He wrote with an austere sense of orchestral colour, devoid of impressionism that favours the vaguely archaic, with modal inflections. Stravinsky's opera-oratorio was written in his neo-Classical style, with a central role for narrator....