Oedipus Rex to video and TV. In 1967 Pier Paolo Pasolini directed "Edipo Re", a modern interpretation of the play. Toshio Matsumoto's 1969 film, "Funeral Parade of Roses", is a loose adaptation of the play and an important work of the Japanese New Wave. In Colombia, writer Gabriel García Márquez adapted the story in "Edipo Alcalde", bringing it to the real Colombian situation. Composer Igor Stravinsky wrote an opera/oratorio version of Oedipus rex (opera), premiered in 1927 by the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, Paris. It is scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by
Oedipus Rex all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Oedipus, Lilli Palmer as Jocasta, Orson Welles as Tiresias, Richard Johnson as Creon, Roger Livesey as the Shepherd, and Donald Sutherland as the Leading Member of the Chorus. Sutherland's voice, however, was dubbed by another actor. The film went a step further than the play, however, by actually showing, in flashback, the murder of Laius (Friedrich Ledebur). It also showed Oedipus and Jocasta in bed together, making love. Made in 1968, this film was not seen in Europe and the U.S. until the 1970s and 1980s after legal release and distribution rights were granted