Time Out says
Fri Sep 28 2012
English National Opera presents a new production of Charpentier's 1693 dramatic full-scale work. Banished, betrayed, besieged on all sides, the barbarian sorceress Medea exacts a terrible vengeance upon her faithless lover and all those he holds most dear.
Director David McVicar returns to ENO to rework one of the most enduringly disturbing of all the Greek myths – that of a mother who murders her own children – Charpentier's thrillingly orchestrated score boasts a harmonic daring and psychological complexity unparalleled in its day.
The exemplary cast includes British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly in the title role, US tenor Jeffrey Francis making his ENO debut as Jason, and baritone Roderick Williams as Orontes. The conductor is period specialist Christian Curnyn.
(Sung in English; running time: three hours and ten minutes.)
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