Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 1 - Medea

23 | Lyric Opera of Chicago The operatic canon abounds with character pairings who fascinate aficionado and newcomer alike: Alfredo and Violetta. Edgardo and Lucia. Lucrezia and Gennaro. Mimi and Rodolfo. Pollione and Norma. Tristan and Isolde. Luigi Cherubini’s Medea ( Médée ), first performed in Paris in 1797, offers another blazing example: Medea and Jason. At its premiere, audiences encountered a work of startling dramatic ambition: an ancient Greek tragedy recast for the Revolutionary era, with a heroine whose betrayal, fury, and vengeance burn at a white-hot pitch. At the center stand two roles that demand extraordinary voices and actors capable of matching one another in emotional intensity and psychological depth. Medea occupies a singular place in the operatic canon: a work at once steeped in 18th-century formalism and charged with proto-Romantic intensity. The drama demands that Medea and Jason embody one of antiquity’s most unsettling myths — the betrayed sorceress who turns her wrath against her unfaithful lover by murdering their children. For performers, these roles are as much emotional crucibles as they are vocal tests. Cherubini could not have imagined that the opera would wait more than a century and a half before reentering the repertoire in earnest. It came into modern prominence in the 20th century largely through the force of Maria Callas, whose searing portrayals from Florence in 1953 onward redefined the tragic heroine. Callas’s Jason was often sung by Canadian tenor Jon Vickers, whose virile instrument and intense stage presence made him an ideal foil. Together, they created a harrowing balance: Callas embodying Medea’s volcanic emotional extremes, Vickers projecting Jason’s flawed heroism and brittle authority. Their partnership demonstrated that these roles require not only vocal stamina but also dramatic parity, since the opera hinges on the confrontation of two formidable personalities. The Soprano’s Crucible: Medea The role of Medea is among the most punishing in the soprano repertoire. It demands sheer vocal power to cut through Cherubini’s dense orchestration, flexibility to manage abrupt changes of mood, and stamina for an evening that rarely allows the heroine to leave the stage. Cherubini’s writing oscillates between long, declamatory passages — where the soprano must sustain dramatic momentum without the relief of florid melody — and moments of searing lyricism that require a bel canto sense of line. The challenge is not only technical. Medea must embody a staggering range of emotions: the grief of betrayal, the humiliation of abandonment, the cunning of a sorceress plotting revenge, and the unimaginable horror of filicide. The singer must command the stage as a tragic actress while never letting the vocal line falter. This dual demand — vocally heroic and theatrically devastating — explains why Medea has been associated with only a handful of truly legendary sopranos. Callas remains the touchstone. Beginning with her 1953 Florence performances under Vittorio Gui, Callas fused her incisive declamation and penetrating timbre with an unparalleled dramatic instinct. She transformed Medea from an antiquarian curiosity into a modern psychological drama, capable of electrifying post-war audiences. For Callas, the role became a signature, and her portrayals with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein and colleagues such as Jon Vickers demonstrated the role’s potential to devastate and enthrall in equal measure. Matthew Polenzani Fay Fox