We left at the interval...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday February 11 2025 Conductor: Julien Chauvin. Médée: Marina Rebeka. Jason: Julien Behr. Dircé: Mélissa Petit. Créon: Patrick Bolleire. Néris: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Suivantes : Hélène Carpentier, Margaux Poguet. Coryphée: Pierre Gennai. Le Concert de la Loge. Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Photos: TCE Instagram acount, not credited. The last time I saw Cherubini’s Médée , it was in its 1797, opéra-comique format with spoken dialogues in alexandrines, fully-staged at the Salle Favart a year ago . According to Alexandre Dratwicki, artistic director of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, the version performed at this week’s concert at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées reconstructs ‘the Médée Cherubini dreamed of,’ i.e. what Cherubini might have presented at the Opéra (had he not fallen out with the management). This has a bigger orchestra, a ballet, and sung recitatives composed, in the manner of Cherubini (or Gluck), by Ala...

Opéra Comique, Paris, Monday February 10 2025 Conductor: Laurence Equilbey. Production and Video: Marie-Ève Signeyrole. Sets: Fabien Teigné. Costumes: Yashi. Lighting: Philippe Berthomé. Médée: Joyce El-Khoury. Jason: Julien Behr. Créon: Edwin Crossley-Mercer. Dircé: Lila Dufy. Néris: Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur. Première suivante de Dircé: Michèle Bréant. Deuxième suivante de Dircé: Fanny Soyer. Actress: Caroline Frossard. Extras: Inès Dhahbi, Sira Lenoble N' Diaye, Lisa Razniewski, Mirabela Vian. Maîtrise Populaire de l'Opéra-Comique. Accentus chorus. Insula orchestra . Photos: Stefan Brion Cherubini’s Médée was first performed in 1797 at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris, of which he was the director. Under Napoleon, the Feydeau and Favart troupes were merged to create the Opéra Comique. So we might say this production is a homecoming, especially as it follows the 2008 critical edition used by Christophe Rousset in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging, which I saw in both Brussels ...

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, Wednesday 12 December 2012 Conductor: Christophe Rousset. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets & Costumes: Malgorzata Szczesniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Video design: Denis Guéguin. Médée: Nadja Michael. Jason: John Tessier. Dircé: Elodie Kimmel. Créon: Vincent Le Texier. Néris: Varduhi Abrahamyan. Servante 1: Ekaterina Isachenko. Servante 2: Anne-Fleur Inizan. Les Talens Lyriques. Chorus of Radio France. Pourquoi tant de haine ? (part 2) This is a production I already wrote about when I saw it in 2011 in Brussels , so I don't need to go into much extra detail here. In Brussels it was not booed; at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, it was both booed and heckled (to be specific, the booing started during "Oh Carol" at the end of act two), perhaps because the Champs Elysées audience often contains a fair contingent of conservative bourgeois from the leafy western suburbs, more used to more conventional productions of Mozart. ...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday September 11 2011 Conductor: Christophe Rousset. Production: Krzysztof Warlikowski. Sets and costumes: Malgorzata Szczesniak. Lighting: Felice Ross. Médée: Nadja Michael. Jason: Kurt Streit. Néris: Christianne Stotijn. Créon: Vincent Le Texier. Dircé: Hendrickje Van Kerckhove. Première servante: Gaëlle Arquez. Deuxième servante: Anne-Fleur Inizian. Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques. Chorus of La Monnaie. I’m always glad to have a production by Kzrystof Warlikowski, so of course – and especially as we didn’t get it the first time round, in 2008 - I was glad to see his staging of Médée pop up on my Sunday matinee schedule in Brussels this year. Noting, simply enough, that divorce and child custody are perfectly modern themes and may well, in an extreme case, end in tragedy, Warlikowski reconstructs Médée as a contemporary, postmodern patchwork in which the 18th century musical numbers are just one element among others in a nearly-new work. The themes a...

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, July 8 2005 Conductor: Evelino Pido. Production, sets, costumes: Yannis Kokkos. Medea: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Gioasone: Giuseppe Gipali. Gluace: Annamaria dell’Oste. Creonte: Giorgio Giuseppini. Neris: Sara Mingardo. Two servants: Elena Poesina, Blandine Staskiewicz. Captain of the guard: Frédéric Caton. Orchestra and Chorus of the Capitole de Toulouse. The applause at the end of this Medea was louder and longer than usual in Paris, where the house lights tend to go up quickly in a stark message to patrons to buzz off. The loudest clapping and cheering and stamping of all was for Anna-Caterina Antonacci, and anyone who’s seen her as Cassandra in the Châtelet DVD of Les Troyens will have no trouble imagining her as Medea. Her voice is not beautiful, but the rough edge, the permanent hint of strain and of definite risk at the top, combined with the fact that she’s willing to throw herself into the part and take that risk, add to her considerable ski...