Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Michèle Reverdy
Médée (2001)
- Alphonse Leduc (World)
- 3(2pic.bfl)2+ca.4*.2+cbn/221+btbn1/timp.3perc/hp.hpd/str *of which one player is Eflat, one is Bflat doubling bass and one is another bass
- Male Chorus (Minimum 12 Voices)
- Coloratura Soprano, Lyric soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Baritone and Bass
- 1 hr 45 min
- Bernard Banoun and Kai Stefan Fritsch based on Medea: Stimmen by Christa Wolf
- French
Programme Note
Michèle Reverdy’s opera Medea, which premiered in January 2003 at the Opéra de Lyon, is inspired by a powerful work from German novelist Christa Wolf (Medea: Stimmen, or, Medea: Voices) that harks back to the myth’s earliest versions. Euripides’ chauvinistic vision is here cast aside. Far from the Oriental fury driven by a desire for revenge on the deceitful Jason, the sorceress appears as a generous, free woman, anxious to use her supernatural powers to help those most in need. Echoing the drums of Colchis, the instrumental prologue gives pride of place to the percussion. When the curtain rises, Medea is nostalgically dreaming of the golden days back in her homeland, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. After helping Jason to seize the Golden Fleece, she followed him to Corinth where the ingrate is now preparing to marry the daughter of King Creon, Glauce. Behind the beauty of the city, rendered by a fugue, Medea perceives its terrible secrets: power here is rooted in crime. This realisation makes the enchantress dangerous, and so she is turned into a scapegoat, her children stoned by the Corinthians. The myth’s metamorphosis reaches a poignant intensity in this 21st century masterpiece.