Medea (Reimann)

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Opera dates
Title: Medea
Charles André van Loo: Jason and Medea, 1759

Charles André van Loo : Jason and Medea, 1759

Shape: Opera in two parts
Original language: German
Music: Aribert Reimann
Libretto : Aribert Reimann
Literary source: Franz Grillparzer : Medea from The Golden Fleece
Premiere: February 28, 2010
Place of premiere: Vienna State Opera
Playing time: about 2 hours
Place and time of the action: Corinth , mythical time
people

Medea is an opera in two parts by Aribert Reimann (music) with its own libretto based on the third part of Franz Grillparzer's drama trilogy Das goldene Vlies . It was composed between 2007 and 2009 and was premiered on February 28, 2010 at the Vienna State Opera.

action

prehistory

The Greek youth Phryxus steals the golden fleece from a temple in Delphi and brings it to Colchis , where he is initially accepted as a guest by King Aietes . However, Aietes murders Phryxus and takes control of the fleece. He has it guarded by a dragon in a cave. A few years later, Pelias , king of Jolkos in Thessaly , instructs his nephew Jason to bring it back to Greece. Jason travels to Colchis with his companions, the Argonauts . There Aietes' daughter Medea falls in love with him. She helps Jason defeat the dragon and win the fleece, and escapes with him from their home. Medea's brother Absyrtus is killed in action. Aietes curses the couple and kills themselves. King Pelias dies on their arrival in Jolkos. Jason and the enchanting Medea are suspected of murder. The two flee again and after a long journey with their two children reach the city of Corinth , where Jason grew up at the court of King Creon together with his daughter Creusa . There he hopes to be welcomed and protected for himself and his family. Medea's nurse Gora is also in Corinth.

First part

First picture. Outside the walls of Corinth

It's early morning. Medea stows her magic utensils and other items brought with her from her home country, including the golden fleece, in a box to bury them. Her nurse Gora warns her not to ignore the past. The magic drugs had served her well in the past and could continue to do so, since the local people fear and hate her and Jason, and Jason's feelings for them are no longer reliable.

Jason tells Medea that rumors of her guilt for Pelias' death are causing problems here too. Creon was ready to take him and the children in, but denied her the right of hospitality. Creon enters. He urges Jason to reveal the truth about Pelias' death. Jason assures him that he was murdered by his own children. Finally Creusa is also approaching. She always believed in Jason's innocence, but considers his wife Medea to be “a hideous woman, poisonous, patricidal”. She calls to her the children to whom she wants to be mother from now on. Since Medea refuses to give up on her children, Creusa lets them go again. Creon reiterates his decision to protect only Jason. Creusa hesitantly asks Medea's forgiveness. Medea tells her that she too is a king's daughter and that she is only despised because she is a stranger. She asks Creusa to help her learn the local customs. At the same time, Jason Kreon tells of his first encounter with Medea and her help in conquering the fleece. Creon agrees to let them into town too. But if she falls back into her "old, wild sense", he will banish her immediately.

Interlude I

Second picture. Hall in Kreon's royal castle in Corinth

Creusa tries to teach Medea a song on the lyre that she thinks Jason will like. Jason remembers his youth with Creusa. When Medea tries to point out her first successful sounds on the lyre, he rejects her abruptly and explains to Creusa that Medea has a better command of other arts. The badly hit Medea breaks the lyre.

A herald from the “Chair of the Amphictyons ”, the Greek League of Cities, appears in Corinth. He reports that the Delphi court found Jason and Medea guilty of Pelias' deaths and that they have been banished. Medea took advantage of the king's illness and murdered him when his daughters pleaded with them for help. Jason denies this. He explains that he forbade Medea to go to Pelias because he did not want to give him (his enemy) any help. However, the Herald points to witnesses who saw Medea. Anyone who helps them after three days and three nights is threatened with death. To protect Jason, Creon decides to marry him to his daughter Creusa. Medea, however, had to leave the country by the next morning. Horrified Medea protests her innocence. She begs Jason not to leave her alone or at least to give her the children. But in the end you are only threatened: “I'm going, but I'll come back and get what I have and bring what is due to you. [...] I'll take my revenge with me! Give space! "

Second part

Third picture. Forecourt of Kreon's Castle

Gora hopes Medea won't give in, even though she has been unusually compliant lately. Creon and Jason tell them to call Medea. While Gora goes into the house, Kreon explains that he is asking for the Golden Fleece as a pledge for Jason's loyalty. When Medea came, Creon repeated his spell. Because of her threats, she had to go without her children that same day. Creon allows her a private conversation with Jason. Meanwhile he also believes Medea's guilt for Pelias' death. She tells him that she saw the terminally ill king when she wanted to get the fleece. He jumped up from his sickbed in a madness, mistook her for his brother and threatened her. Then he tore his own veins and collapsed dead. Medea reminds Jason of her past love and asks him to flee with her or to leave the children to her. Reluctantly he allows her to take one of the two boys with her, of her own choosing.

Creon joins Creusa and the children. But given the choice, both children are afraid and flee to Kreusa. This goes off singing with them. Creon and Jason follow her. Medea complains to Gora of her suffering.

After a while, Creon comes back to demand the surrender of the fleece. Medea denies having it. But Creon's people have already found the box. Medea asks him to give Creusa a parting present. Creon promises her that she will be able to see the children again. While he is fetching her, Medea opens the box and takes a vessel from her that Gora Kreusa is to present as a present - "The bride will shine, she opens it".

The children are coming. Gora leads her to Medea and withdraws. Medea hugs the children and sends them into the portico. Before she follows them, she calls out: "Not to you, I am sending you to the gods!" At that moment, the palace in the background is illuminated by an inner flame. Gora shouts that Creusa is dead. Medea emerges from the portico, dagger in hand.

Interlude II

Fourth picture. Wild lonely area

Jason was expelled from the city by Creon. He has lost everything and just wants to die. Then he meets Medea, who has thrown the fleece around her shoulders like a cloak. She confirms that the children are dead. Although Jason reminds her sadly of her former love, Medea says goodbye to him. She wants to bring the fleece back to Delphi and submit to the judgment of the priests there. Jason leaves it to his fate: "The dream is over, but not the night."

layout

orchestra

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

music

Reimann explained the appointment of the herald with a countertenor by saying that as a court messenger he was even “powerfully superior” to King Creon and came “from above”, so to speak.

Reimann, according to his habit, avoided syllabic setting of the text and enriched the vocal lines with melisms . He also wanted to show the "state of vibration" of the characters when they met Medea. Medea's own complex coloratura express her “inner turmoil”, which is intensified by the increasingly violent attacks of the others. Only when she has regained her calm in the last picture does she no longer need any coloratura. The orchestra is also greatly reduced here. Occasional harp chords are accompanied by string lines that run through the entire pitch range from above (three-stroke octave of the violins) to below (double basses). The opera ends in pianissimo with a split sound of the piccolo and the double basses without a middle register. This frank conclusion points to the future judgment of the Delphi priests. Reimann only used syllabic or spoken text in exceptional cases to convey content-related information.

Each figure is assigned specific timbres of the orchestra. Typical for Medea are the soft beats of the tam-tam and diatonic wind figures. Kreon is accompanied by "majestic" brass, Kreusa by harp and celesta .

The orchestra musically anticipates future processes in several places. For example, at the beginning of the opera, the woodwinds (bass flute, bass clarinet and bassoon) hear a theme that is derived from the tone letters of the name "Medea" ("e - e - d - e - a"), with the first "e" corresponds to the tone name "Mi" in the solmization scale. Medea only sings this theme in the third picture when she opens her box with the magic utensils. The string accompaniment to Kreusa's words “Come to me, you homeless orphans” in the first picture already refers to the fire disaster in the third picture.

In contrast to Reimann's earlier operas Lear or Troades, there are fewer “clusters of sound” in Medea . The instruments are carefully put together in many ways. The strings are also used variably from unison to tenfold division of violas and twelvefold division of violins. On vierteltönige intermediates Reimann waived now, but more commonly used harmonic effects.

Work history

Reimann received the commission for his new opera in 2006 from the Vienna State Opera . He was referred to Grillparzer's trilogy of drama The Golden Fleece , which he had not known up to that point. He started working during a stay in Lanzarote. In addition to the third part of Medea , he also used material from the first two parts of the trilogy.

Reimann dedicated the opera to the then director of the Vienna State Opera with the words “ Thanks to Ioan Holender ”.

The world premiere on February 28, 2010 in the Vienna State Opera was directed by Michael Boder . The production and stage design were by Marco Arturo Marcelli , the costumes by Dagmar Niefind . Marlis Petersen (Medea), Elisabeth Kulman (Gora), Adrian Eröd (Jason), Michael Roider (Kreon), Michaela Selinger (Kreusa) and Max Emanuel Cenčić (Herold) sang . After the premiere was only very poorly attended, but was honored with long applause, the number of viewers rose steadily up to the last performances. The production was voted "World Premiere of the Year" in the critics' survey by Opernwelt magazine in 2010.

On September 5, there was the German premiere at the Frankfurt Opera as a co-production with the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Erik Nielsen . The main actress Claudia Barainsky was awarded the German Theater Prize Der Faust 2011 in the category “Singer Actress” for her performance in this production .

In November 2012, Reimann's Medea was performed under the direction of Tatsuya Shimono at the Nissay Theater in Tokyo. In April 2017, the Vienna State Opera returned the work to its program. In May of the same year it was also given at the Komische Oper Berlin under the direction of Steven Sloane . The Aalto-Theater Essen showed Medea 2019 directed by Kay Link with the Essen Philharmonic under Robert Jindra and Claudia Barainsky in the title role.

Recordings

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c work information from Schott Music , accessed on October 10, 2017.
  2. ^ Contents of Medea on the website of the Komische Oper Berlin , accessed on October 10, 2017.
  3. ↑ Information in the libretto.
  4. ↑ a b c Indication in the score.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f The composer Aribert Reimann on the creation of his opera "Medea" on the website of the Komische Oper Berlin, accessed on October 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b c Stephan Mösch : Tragedy of fire and light. First performance in 2010. In: Opernwelt Jahrbuch 2010, p. 14.
  7. ↑ Peter Uehling: Classical sense. Song-like subtlety, striking drama: Aribert Reimann's “Medea” at the Komische Oper Berlin. In: Opera world . July 2017, p. 14.
  8. ↑ a b Stephan Mösch : Paradise Lost. In: Opera world . April 2010, p. 6.
  9. ↑ Gerhard Persché: Endure, budget, persevere. Interview with the director Ioan Holender. In: Opernwelt yearbook 2010. p. 38.
  10. ↑ Marc Staudacher: Service. In: Opera world . November 2011, p. 66.
  11. ↑ Reimann's “Medea” celebrates a great premiere at the Aalto. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed on March 24, 2019.
  12. ^ Prize of the German Record Critics: Best List 2/2011 , accessed on October 10, 2017.
  13. ↑ Andrew Clements: Reimann: Medea - review. In: The Guardian . May 26, 2011, accessed October 10, 2017.
  14. ^ Reimann - Medea on The Opera Platform ( Memento from September 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).