Médée

After so many years during which the opera privileges enjoyed by Lully limited him to performances of pastorals and religious music, Charpentier final made it to the Opéra stage at the age of 50. He had already won over audiences with his Malade Imaginaire, a comédie-ballet created with Molière twenty years earlier. Médée is Charpentier’s magnum opus, the culmination of all his vocal work, an outstanding example of rich orchestration, and a magnificent experience of tragedy courtesy of Thomas Corneille’s libretto and the tragic and all-consuming fate of Medea – a true masterpiece! However, Médée’s reception in Paris was not on a par with the work itself, and it was not considered sufficiently “fashionable". Charpentier therefore stepped back from all the cabals which were making the Opéra a hotbed of schemers. Médée is Charpentier’s only lyric tragedy and we regret all those he might have written if fate, politics and Lully had not decided otherwise (Source: Centre de musique baroque de Versailles).

Coproduction Théâtre des Champs-Elysées / Centre de musique baroque de Versailles / Le Concert Spirituel
Concert broadcast on Mezzo (date to be confirmed)
Concert to be broadcast on TCE Live