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Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Barenboim conducts Cherubini's Médée in Berlin

Barenboim conducts Cherubini's Médée in Berlin

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Barenboim conducts Cherubini's Médée in Berlin

Andrew McGregor presents a new production from Berlin of Cherubini's Medee.

A new production from the Berlin Staatsoper of Cherubini's Medee, cast includes Sonya Yoncheva as Medea and Charles Castronovo as her husband Jason. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Andrew McGregor presents a new production of Cherubini's Médée from Berlin Staatsoper, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, recorded earlier this week.

Born in Florence and a contemporary of Mozart and Beethoven, Cherubini settled early on in Paris and created numerous operas for French audiences - including in the style of 'opéra comique', with significant spoken sections in place of Italian recitatives..

The story is a re-telling of Euripides tragedy of the revenge of the enchantress Medea - truly a woman scorned - She is mother to two of Jason and the Argonauts sons, and years before helped Jason recover the golden fleece from Chalcis at the cost of rejection by her own family.   Years later, as Jason is about to be married, but not to Medea, and she suddenly appears none too pleased, bent on revenge

Cherubini's focus is the psychological and emotional state of Medea, and this lifts the work out of its own time of post revolutionary Paris, into our own.  In this new critical edition, sung in French, much of the editorial work has gone into the spoken sections to make the most of the dramatic situation and the emotional state of Medea.

Andrew McGregor is joined by Professor Sarah Hibberd to put into context Médée against the legacy of French Opera and assess Cherubini's contribution.

Médée....Sonya Yoncheva (Soprano) 
Jason.....Charles Castronovo (Tenor) 
King Créon .....Iain Paterson (Bass) 
Dircé, Créon's daughter .....Elsa Drelslg (Soprano) 
Néris, Médée's slave .....Marina Prudenskaya (Soprano) 
Berlin State Opera Chorus
Berlin State Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim (Conductor)

SYNOPSIS
PRIOR STORY
Jason set off with the Argonauts to purloin the Golden Fleece in Colchis on the Black Sea.  Once in Colchis, Jason and the king’s daughter Médée fell in love with one another. With Médée’s help, Jason was able to pilfer the fleece from her father’s possessions. Once back in Greece, Jason learned that Pelias has driven his father to his death. To punish Pelias, Médée then tricked his daughter into killing and boiling him, claiming that it would rejuvenate him. Pursued by Acastus, the son of Pelias, the homeless couple fled across Greece, now with two children in tow. During their flight, the parents were separated: Jason reached Corinth with his two sons, where he was offered the possibility of marrying into the royal house.

ACT I
Dircé, the daughter of the King of Corinth, fears that Jason might leave her one day, just as he abandoned his first wife Médée. Jason has his Argonauts march and presents the bridal gift to Créon: the Golden Fleece. A stranger appears: it is Médée. Calmly and decisively, she declares that she will prevent Jason’s adulterous marriage. She pleads with him not to reject “the mother of his sons,” but to no avail. When he refuses all responsibility for her and her deeds, she calls on him to choose between her love or her animosity. The argument escalates: both threaten to kill one another.

ACT II
Médée is furious: she has been forbidden all contact with her sons. Créon appears with his soldiers: in response to Jason’s request, he offers her the chance to flee unharmed and promises to protect her children. Médée humbly begs to be tolerated in Corinth, and allays Créon’s mistrust by insisting on her utter helplessness. She now comes up with the plan that horrifies even her: to take revenge Jason’s betrayal not only by killing his wife, but his sons as well. Médée declares that her resistance is now broken. Jason rejects her request that the children accompany her into exile because of his great love of both. Jason responds to Médée’s lament by allowing her to have contact with her children once more before her departure. Médée commands Néris to accompany her two sons to Dircé. They are to offer Médée’s former bridal dress and her bridal crown as gifts, poisoned gifts that are to kill the new bride. 

ACT III
Néris has set off with the children and the deadly gifts. A storm erupts. Médée has armed herself with a dagger and admonishes herself to be relentless. But when her children return, she is unable to carry out her intended murder. The  dagger falls from her hands. Her rage against Jason and the love of her children are tearing her apart. She orders Néris to bring her children to safety from her. But just as Néris departs with them, Médée regrets her failure to carry out this ultimate punishment of Jason. Then cries of horror and Jason’s mourning of the torturous death of Dircé, which has also killed Créon as well, come to her ear. Médée picks up the dagger and follows Néris and her children. Jason and the people want to punish Médée. Médée tells Jason that her children have been murdered and, declaring that she will wait for him in hell, leaps into the flames now raging in Créon’s palace.

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