Médée

About

National Theatre Chorus
National Theatre Orchestra
National Theatre Opera Ballet

Medea has fascinated numerous artists, from Antiquity to modern times – from Euripides through Seneca, Pierre Corneille, Franz Grillparzer, Jean Anouilh, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Heiner Müller, to contemporary creators.There are a number of operas based on this extremely dramatic, grisly and, notwithstanding (or owing precisely to) its brutality, highly human story. Medea sacrifices everything for her beloved Jason, and saves his life on multiple occasions – and she only wants one thing in return: constant love. Yet Jason’s craving for power is stronger than his desire for Medea, hence after ten years of marriage he intends to abandon her to wed another woman, who will finally make his dream come true. Deeply hurt, the betrayed Medea decides to take revenge, not hesitating to dispense with that which mothers regard as the most sacred – the lives of her own children … One of those who set the final, most heart-wrenching part of the long Medea story was Luigi Cherubini, an Italian composer who spent most of his career in France.

Although written to a French libretto in Paris, Médée clearly reveals his having been inspired by Italian music music, thus being a direct precursor of Rossini’s, Donizetti’s and Bellini’s operas. The original score contained spoken dialogue, which after Cherubini’s death was replaced by sung recitatives, which resulted in the piece’s acquiring an even more Italian sound, as well as, in places, a markedly Romantic tone.

The Italian, early 20th-century, version of Médée, to be staged at the Estates Theatre, was primarily made famous in the 1950s and 1960s by the divine soprano Maria Callas, for whom Medea was an iconic role.