"Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries." This is what his wikipedia entry claims. I guess Mozart is probably a little too early to count as one of his contemporaries. Anyway. This is his best-known opera these days, largely because Maria Callas used it as a star vehicle. I saw a production from Moscow's Stanislavsky Music Theatre that was on Operavision; it's not there anymore, but I download these things for consumption at my leisure, so I had it just sitting around.
Really, all I can say is, dagnabbit. The story here is basically that of Euripides' play, with the title character wreaking what some might consider disproportionate vengeance on Jason for abandoning her And taking their sons away (though Jason, it has to be said, is kind of a douchebag).
So is it good? Yeah it's good. It's the best Operavision performance I've seen, I'll tell you that much. The production itself is a bit strange; the stage is dominated by these giant concrete tetrapods. It actually feels kind of appropriate, but I couldn't begin to tell you why. It certainly doesn't detract in any way. The opera is great in itself; the Medea here clearly ranks up there with Strauss' Salome and Elektra in terms of violent, obsessive antiheroines. And the performance here, my goodness.
Khibla Gerzmava. WHY had I never heard of or seen her before? Is it just that there was only one slot for an internationally-famous Russian soprano, and Netrebko had already taken it? Unfair. I really couldn't say how she compares to Callas, but she sings the shit out of this role, and she is intense as hell. I remember seeing Nina Stemme as Elektra and thinking, damn. This is the most impressive operatic acting I've seen (am I confusing "flashy" with "impressive," due to my low-level thinking? Maybe. Leave me alone.), but this is about on that level. I want to see her in many more roles. Ksenia Dudnikova as Medea's maid Neris (the opera's moral center to the extent that it has one) is also very impressive. This can't be a very satisfying opera for a male singer; Creon and Jason don't get to do much. But everyone's fine. I did think...well, it might just be my equipment, but I felt that maybe the audio was not quite properly recorded, resulting in a certain amount of distracting feedback. But it wasn't a big deal once I'd gotten into it.
Yeah. I strongly recommend this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment