Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex premiered in Paris in 1927 as an oratorio in a concert hall. A year later it priemiered in Vienna as an opera. It works successfully both ways.
The plot follows Sophocles, the classic story of hubris punished. Oedipus unknowingly kills his father the king, and marries his own mother. Now the king, he must find the cause of the plague of Thebes, the city he rules. Though warned not to pursue the truth, he does so, only to find that indeed it is his actions that are responsible. He blinds himself and retreats from the city.
The version we have tonight is in Latin with Jean Cocteau's original French narration. Gerard Depardieu is the narrator, and Valery Gergiev conducts soloists and the chorus and orchestra of St. Petersburg's Marinsky Theater.