Médée (Medea)

Luigi Cherubini (1760 - 1842).
Opéra comique in three acts. 1797.
Libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman. First performance at the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris, on 13th March 1797.

CHARACTERS

Dirce seeks Hymen's blessing on her marriage to Jason and the Argonauts bring gifts to her. Creon promises to protect Jason's children and Jason himself tells Dirce that Medea is probably dead. A stranger appears, revealed as Medea, threatening and arguing with Jason, and deploring the effect of the golden fleece on their fortunes. In the second act she meets Creon's anger, seeking from Jason a last meeting with her children. She sends them to Dirce with a poisoned robe. While Dirce, off-stage, dies in agony, Medea steels herself to kill her children. Jason tries to stop her, but he is too late and now sees her, accompanied by the Furies, standing with blood-stained knife at the doors of the temple, which then bursts into flames, as she takes flight.

Cherubini's very demanding opera has enjoyed mixed success, but is now re-established in current repertoire, largely thanks to Maria Callas, who sang the rôle in 1952 and later appeared in Pasolini's film on the same subject. Notable excerpts from the score include the second act Ah! nos peines seront communes (Ah! Our sufferings will be shared), as Neris sympathizes with Medea. In the first act Medea appeals to Jason in Vous voyez de vos fils la mère infortunée (You see the unlucky mother of your sons) and in the third she screws her courage to the sticking-place in Eh quoi, je suis Médée (What, I am Medea). The opera is sometimes performed in Italian translation and various productions have chosen either to shorten the spoken dialogue or to replace it with recitative.