MEDEA

Aribert Reimann’s Medea, premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 2010, became a major event, attracting full houses and enthusiastic attention from the world’s cultural media. The Viennese newspaper Kurier described it as “a magnificent work of music theatre,” while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung spoke of “a great triumph for new music”. Reimann is one of today’s most distinguished composers, especially celebrated for Lear, which he composed for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the late 1970s. There, his inspiration came from Shakespeare. For this Medea he turned to the 19th century German dramatist Franz Grillparzer and the third part of his trilogy Das goldene Vlies(The golden fleece).The demanding title role is taken by the soprano Marlis Petersen, celebrated around the world for her interpretation of Berg’s Lulu, and the striking and stylish production is by Marco Arturo Marelli. The conductor is Michael Boder, a noted interpreter of contemporary opera