Médée

In 2014 OPERA2DAY presented a repeat season of its successful production of Médée. This is a staging of one of the most dramatic works of the entire opera literature, composed by Luigi Cherubini. This flamboyant work – once one of the signature works of Maria Callas – dramatizes the revenge of Medea as she is deserted by Jason.  She murders both Jason’s new lover, and as the ultimate act of revenge, also the two children she had with him. According to NRC, OPERA2DAY made it into a 'bloodcurdling performance that left the audience shattered'.

Dutch premiere of the original version

Médée is the masterwork of the Italian composer Luigi Cherubini (1760 – 1842). He wrote it at the pinnacle of his career for the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris, where it was premiered on 13 March. The work also became a magnum opus for the librettist, François-Benoît. The text was based on a tragedy by Corneille that in turn was based on Euripides and Seneca.

Musically, the work is a flagship of the opera genre. Cherubini developed his own idiom which later became the basis for the Grand ópera in France. Great composers were also admirers.  Beethoven wrote to Cherubini in a letter, ‘I admire your theatrical work more than anything […] true art is imperishable and the true artist feels genuine pleasure at the work of a genius, and that happens to me when I hear your works.  I actually deem your work better than my own compositions.  In short, I love you and honour you’. Brahms said that, ‘this Médée is, amongst musicians, the work that we recognize as the highest pinnacle of dramatic music’.          

A new form of opéra-comique

Since the premiere was in the Théâtre Feydeau, Cherubini bound his tragedy to the conventions of the ‘opéra-comique’. This does not mean that the work is comic, but that the music is combined with spoken text. The hybrid form is a tragedy in itself: in dramatic moments, the music is sometimes suddenly silent.  This form certainly curbed the spread of the work.  The opera became most popular in adapted versions (with the addition of composed recitatives in the style of Wagner or verisimo). A 20^e century Italian version became the standard for a long time since it was the one which Maria Callas made famous.The original French version has only made a come-back in the past years in a few theatres.

As already mentioned, the use of the opéra-comique form was for a long time a tragedy for the work. But we see this now as an opportunity.  The moments when the music is silent are an invitation to use to the work to bring the audience even closer.   This was perhaps the aim of the texts in their time. However, the pompous dialogues and monologues in old French would achieve the opposite today: they create distance. We see it as an adventure to create a new and modern version of this work.

OPERA2DAY takes great pleasure in being inspired in new ways by the old. We are delighted to bring the original French version of Médée in a contemporary manner for the first time on the Dutch stage.

This project is also a hommage to the famous French-inspired opera tradition of The Hague. This tradition goes back to the 17^e century, but from 1704 it gained an official form in the association Théatre Français de la Haye. At the start, performances were given four times a week in a bowling hall by varying French companies. From 1804 until the end of the association in 1919, the Koninklijke Schouwburg was used. After one hundred years, we were picking up the thread at the same place – our home theatre in The Hague. And then with a work of Cherubini who was extremely popular in the Koninklijke Schouwburg. His Les Deux Journées was particularly popular here. 

Trailers

Trailer with performance footage

Trailer with background information

With thanks to

The revival of this production is made possible thanks to the support of:

The first season of this production was made possible thanks to the support of:

Gemeente Den Haag
Gemeente Alkmaar
VSBfonds
Cultuurfonds van de Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten
Cultuurschakel
Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds
Fonds 1818
Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht
Stichting Fonds Schiedam Vlaardingen e.o.
Stichting H. Muller's Vaderlandsch Fonds
Van Ommeren - De Voogt Stichting
Stichting Niemeijer Fonds
Fonds Rabobank Coöperatief Dividend Alkmaar
Dr. Hofsteestichting
Van Cappellen Stichting
Stichting Elise Mathilde fonds
Société Gavigniés
Sonar appartementen