Œdipe à Colone

Œdipe à Colone (French pronunciation: [edip a kɔlɔn]) is an operatic tragédie lyrique by Antonio Sacchini first performed at Versailles on 4 January 1786 in the presence of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

The premiere, intended to inaugurate the new theatre at Versailles, was not a success, possibly due to the quality of the performances, the staging, or the acoustics.

Marie Antoinette promised Sacchini a better production at Fontainebleau in the autumn, but the Affair of the Diamond Necklace meant she was unable to have her wish.

Œdipe was given a posthumous performance by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on February 1, 1787.

This time the audience was warmly appreciative and the opera became one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire for several decades, reaching a total of almost 600 performances by 1844.

Order of characters: Œdipe, Antigone, Polynice, Thésée, Eriphile, the High Priest, an Athenian woman, a coryphaeus, a herald

Oedipe et Antigone (1809) by Johann Peter Krafft