Medea is one of the most fascinating female figures in the history of drama, and has repeatedly inspired artists to new interpretations. In his tragedy based on the drama by Euripides, the Roman dramatist Seneca portrays her as a monstrously demonic creature who, in revenge for Jason’s infidelity, murders their own children. The “Tragédie mise en musique” by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, premièred in 1693, also leads to this atrocity; but Charpentier’s title character is portrayed as more human and ambivalent. In the century of Descartes’ Passions of the Soul, with their Médée, Charpentier and his librettist Thomas Corneille created the emotional drama of a tragic heroine who only gradually grasps the perfidy of Jason’s betrayal and sees herself increasingly as a captive of her hopeless situation.

The genre of the French musical tragedy, which emerged in the age of Louis XIV, is characterised by a declamatory musical idiom that is closely related to the spoken word of the tragedy; on the other hand, it was the task of the musical theatre of the time to portray the miraculous and the supernatural, which is expressed in scenes featuring stage magic, ballets and choruses. The story of Medea, who in her desperation summons the spirits of the underworld, was ideally suited to this combination of classical tragedy and the sphere of the occult.

The conductor William Christie knows Charpentier’s Médée like no other; after almost 300 years, he revived this masterpiece of the French baroque like the Sleeping Beauty, and will be responsible for the musical direction of our new production. The mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac, currently one of the most important interpreters of French baroque music, will be singing the title role. Andreas Homoki, who has already staged Charpentier’s opera David et Jonathas together with William Christie at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence, will be directing.