Vienna cancels Medea
OperaThe Vienna State Opera has called off its revival of Aribert Reimann’s Medea because the only singer who knows the part is unavailable.
Press release:
Nicole Chévalier, who sang the title role at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2017 (pic), cannot fulfill her contract for serious family reasons. Medea has only been shown in three productions since its 2010 premiere at the Vienna State Opera. Besides Nicole Chévalier, there are only two singers in the world who can master the demanding role; both are unavailable for the scheduled performance dates, forcing a change in the performance schedule. Instead of Medea, Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos will be performed.
The world premiere of „Medea“ was on 28 February 2010 with Marlis Petersen for the first five performances. In later 2010 performances and a 2017 revival, Claudia Barainsky sang the title role, so along with Chévalier, I guess those are the only three singers who know the role!
Too bad: I was truly looking forward to hearing it again (I saw it twice with Petersen).
Medea and Ariadne were women who had quite different responses to their mistreatment by men.
Poor planning … from an incompetent so-called director!
I cannot believe that there was not an in-house cover assigned from the ensemble of the Staatsoper.
Sometimes productions are swapped out at the last minute (24 hours notice), but is there precedence for this happening 10 days in advance?
In the midst of cold/flu/Covid season, Roscic did not have a back up plan?
apparently they don’t seem to think that Sondra Radvonovksy who opened the Met last year is worthy…..
The piece in question is Aribert Reimann’s Madea.
Radvanovsky, who is without a doubt one of the most exciting singers in the world, has Cherubini’s Madea in her repertoire.
Sondra??