Médée
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Charpentier’s only operatic tragedy, Médée, is the author’s masterwork.
Dates
Marie-Nicole Lemieux | Médée
Petr Nekoranec | Jason
Juliette Mey | Créuse
Alex Rosen | Créon
Étienne Bazola | Oronte
Claire Lefilliâtre | Cléone / An italian
Les Épopées
Stéphane Fuget | direction
Chœur de chambre de Namur
-
Sung in French, surtitled in French/English
-
Approx. running time : 3h15
About
Médée by Charpentier plunges us into conflicting worlds where a full spectrum of passions fired by excess and extremism clash. Failure to allow reason to prevail leads to mutual destruction fuelled by the intoxication of supposed righteousness. Medea’s possessive love and destiny reveal that love is not so much in the lap of the gods as in the hands mankind, since this character, who represents Love, goes so far as to grant herself the right to kill her own children. For the librettist Thomas Corneille, as for his elder brother Pierre, the answer is clear: love is what gives us life as human beings and therefore always comes first. This being the case, what gives people life can also kill them, as rights take precedence over duty. Love is therefore tragic, because it is both necessary and impossible. With splendour and subtlety, the work glorifies the tragic and all-consuming fate of this mythical figure – a true masterpiece!
Production Théâtre des Champs-Élysées