By Becky Sprecher
The Metropolitan Opera will kick off its 2022-23 Season with Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea,” which will air live in Hi-Def at 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22 at the USC Beaufort’s Center For The Arts on Carteret St.
Tickets are $22, and $20 for OLLI members.
Based on the 431 BCE play by Euripides, “Medea” tells the story of a royal sorceress who helps Jason of the Argonauts steal the coveted Golden Fleece. Giasone (Jason) marries her, has two children with her, then drops her for Glauce, daughter of the king of Corinth. Obsessed with Giasone’s betrayal, Medea concocts a plan to murder Glauce by sending her a poisoned robe and crown.
And Medea doesn’t stop there; so great is her desire for revenge that she takes their two sons to the temple, kills them, then burns the place to the ground.
We all know that weird stuff goes on in Greek tragedies, but we still study them because the timeless lessons they teach us. That a woman who could be so empowered by betrayal to commit such acts of vengeance resonates even today. It should also be remembered that this opera premiered in 1797, in the same decade as the French Revolution, so contemporary audiences would have immediately understood these desperate and complex emotions. And Cherubini’s music, daring and innovative for the day, provides an opportunity for the singers to showcase their thrilling virtuosity.
Medea has been in the repertory since 1797 and is still staged, albeit rarely. But it has never been presented by the Met until now. The reason is that rare is the singer who can perform this extremely difficult role.
And history looms large here because we’re in Maria Callas territory. Back in 1953 Callas was asked to fill in for another singer at the last minute, learned the part of Medea in a mere eight days, then went onstage and brought the house down with her performance. Along with Norma, Medea would remain one of her signature roles for the rest of her career.
Although she doesn’t come on right away, “once Medea hits the stage, she does not leave,” said the production’s director, Sir David McVicar, in an interview with the Met. “The vocal writing is incredibly punishing, the drama … incredibly demanding.”
While La Divina’s shoes are always hard to fill, our Medea, Sondra Radvonavsky, should more than meet the challenge.
“She is one of the few sopranos in the world that can take this on,” said McVicar.
Radvonavsky, an accomplished Verdi singer who has performed more than 200 times at the Met, recently experienced the emotional challenges of both losing her mother and leaving her husband during the pandemic. But her art has enabled her to get through it, she tells Opera News Magazine.
Remembering her grandfather’s words, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” she has used her singing as therapy. “It’s cathartic, I’m telling you,” she says. “Music has been the one and only thing that has kept me together and sane, and in many ways, it’s made my singing better. It’s where all my emotion has been poured.”
As for the inevitable comparisons to Callas, Radvonavsky says in a Met interview, “I feel I’m picking up the Callas torch, … like I’m following in her footsteps in a way, and what an honor. She will forever be an operatic icon, and I pay homage to her and thank her for all the work that she did paving the way for opera today. But I hope that people allow me to put my personal stamp on this and let the comparisons be pushed aside, because I think there’s room enough in the world for two separate versions of Medea.”
In his 12th production for the Met, McVicar’s new staging is simultaneously classical and timeless. He depicts a Corinth in despair, with crumbling buildings that speak of an aristocracy in freefall. He places walls in strategic locations that emphasize Medea’s exclusion from Corinthian society, which intensify her anger and vengeance.
A part of the Met’s expanding outreach strategy, “Medea” is a co-production with the Greek National Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Underwritten by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, it will be performed in Greece in 2023, the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth.
Matthew Polenzani, a Met regular, sings Giasone and Janai Brugger sings Glauce. Estimated run time is 2 hours and 50 minutes, with one intermission between Act II and Act III. Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English. Visit the USCB Center for the Arts website for more information.
WANT TO GO?
What: “Medea” by Luigi Cherubini in HD
When: 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22
Where: USC Beaufort’s Center For The Arts
Tickets: $22, $20 for OLLI members
