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== Music ==
== Music ==
A reviewer of the premiere notes that the vocal lines are highly ornamented, full of [[melisma]], and with sharply jagged contours ("wild gezackt, scharf geschnitten"), demanding virtuosity from the singers. The [[Metre (music)|metre]] changes without rest, also in the orchestra. The strings are divided multiple times, while the winds often have solo function. The singing was described highly artificial ("hochartifiziell").<ref name="Büning" />
A reviewer of the premiere notes that the vocal lines are highly ornamented, full of [[melisma]], and with sharply jagged contours ("wild gezackt, scharf geschnitten"), demanding virtuosity from the singers. The [[Metre (music)|metre]] changes without rest, also in the orchestra. The strings are divided multiple times, while the winds often have solo function. The vocal style was described as highly artificial ("hochartifiziell").<ref name="Büning" />


== Recordings ==
== Recordings ==

Revision as of 15:32, 24 July 2017

Medea
Opera by Aribert Reimann
The composer in 2011
LanguageGerman
Based onMedea
by Franz Grillparzer
Premiere
2010 (2010)

Medea is a German-language opera by Aribert Reimann after the play by Franz Grillparzer. It was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in February 2010. The German premiere was at the Frankfurt Opera in August 2010.

History

Aribert Reimann had already written seven literary operas, including Melusine, Lear and Troades, when he received a commission from the Vienna State Opera to write an opera for the conclusion of the era of Ioan Holender as General Director of the opera house. He chose the play Medea by Franz Grillparzer as a basis for the work, the last part of Grillparzer's trilogy Das goldene Vließ [de] (The Golden Fleece) which is focused on Greek mythology, especially Medea.[1][2][3] The opera was premiered at the Vienna State Opera in February 2010, staged by Marco Arturo Marelli, conducted by Michael Boder, with Marlis Petersen in the title role. The German premiere was at the Frankfurt Opera in August 2010.[4]

Music

A reviewer of the premiere notes that the vocal lines are highly ornamented, full of melisma, and with sharply jagged contours ("wild gezackt, scharf geschnitten"), demanding virtuosity from the singers. The metre changes without rest, also in the orchestra. The strings are divided multiple times, while the winds often have solo function. The vocal style was described as highly artificial ("hochartifiziell").[1]

Recordings

References

  1. ^ a b Büning, Eleonore (1 March 2010). "Oper: "Medea" in Wien Eine antike Brünnhilde". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b Clements, Andrew (26 May 2011). "Medea – review Barainsky/Baumgartner/Nagy/Baba/Frankfurt Opera/Nielsen (Oehms, two CDs)". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  3. ^ a b Whittall, Arnold (2010). "Reimann Medea / Reimann's take on a bloodthirsty tale, filmed during its Vienna premiere run". Gramophone. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  4. ^ Carlà, Filippo; Berti, Irene (2016). Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts. ISBN 1350007943. ..., Reimann's work, following Franz Grillparzer's Medea (1820), the primary source for the libretto, can safely be ascribed to the second type. Reimann's social and political interpretation of Medea's magical abilities allows him to reflect on the violence of the power that fears and distrusts – but at the same time needs – the unknown, the foreigner."