Medea

In the organizer's words:

Opera by Luigi Cherubini

Premiere on October 6, 2024

in Italian language with German surtitles

Age recommendation from 16 years

O fateful Golden Fleece, bitter glory of victory!
One day you will cost us blood and tears!

With the help of the magical Medea, Jason succeeded in stealing the Golden Fleece from Colchis. Together they fled to Corinth and had two children. But then Jason grew tired of Medea's love and fell in love with Glaucus, King Creon's daughter. For political reasons, Jason now seeks to marry Glaucus. Medea, however, is to be cast out. Betrayed by her husband and banished by the king, Medea unleashes her dark magical powers. First Glauce and Creon fall victim to her rage, then her own children. Jason, however, is faced with the shambles of his tragic life.

With Medea, we plunge into the abyss of betrayal and boundless revenge. It was the symphonist Johannes Brahms who summed up the outstanding quality of Cherubini's opera: "This Medea is what we musicians among us recognize as the highest in dramatic music." Medea was premiered in 1797 at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris as an "opéra comique", i.e. with spoken dialog. Three years later, the German-language premiere took place in Vienna. In 1854, Franz Lachner replaced the dialogues with composed recitatives, which were in turn translated into Italian by Carlo Zangarini at the beginning of the 20th century. The Italian version with recitatives was the opera's breakthrough on stages around the world from the 1950s onwards. And it is in this version that Medea can now be experienced for the first time at the Mainfranken Theater.