Medea (Pacini)
Encyclopedia
Medea is an opera
in three acts composed by Giovanni Pacini
to a libretto
by Benedetto Castiglia. It premiered on 28 November 1843 at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo
, conducted by the composer with Geltrude Bortolotti in the title role. The libretto is based on the plays Medea
by Euripides
and Médée by Pierre Corneille
.
, Pacini revised the work for its performance at the Teatro Eretenio in Vicenza
in 1845. It was further revised for its first performance at La Fenice
in Venice
on 9 March 1850. The final and definitive version premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples
on 26 February 1853. For two decades Pacini's Medea enjoyed considerable popularity in Italy, Russia and South America. It then fell into obscurity, eclipsed by Bellini
's Norma
which has a similar story and Cherubini's Médée
which in the 20th century became a vehicle for Maria Callas
.
However, it has had some modern revivals, most notably the 1993 performance at the Teatro Comunale Chiabrera in Savona
conducted by Richard Bonynge
with Jolanta Omilian in the title role (a live recording was released on the Agora label), and the 2006 semi-staged production at the Teatro Antico in Taormina
conducted by Tyrone Paterson with Simona Baldolini in the title role.
The heroic warrior Giasone
, wants to abandon his wife Medea
, the mother of his two children to marry Glauce, the daughter of the king of Corinth. In revenge, Medea murders the children and then commits suicide.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in three acts composed by Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini
Giovanni Pacini was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas...
to a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Benedetto Castiglia. It premiered on 28 November 1843 at the Teatro Carolino in Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, conducted by the composer with Geltrude Bortolotti in the title role. The libretto is based on the plays Medea
Medea (play)
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...
by Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
and Médée by Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
.
Performance history
Following its premiere on 28 November 1843 at the Teatro Carolino on PalermoPalermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Pacini revised the work for its performance at the Teatro Eretenio in Vicenza
Vicenza
Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
in 1845. It was further revised for its first performance at La Fenice
La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
on 9 March 1850. The final and definitive version premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
on 26 February 1853. For two decades Pacini's Medea enjoyed considerable popularity in Italy, Russia and South America. It then fell into obscurity, eclipsed by Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
which has a similar story and Cherubini's Médée
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
which in the 20th century became a vehicle for Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
.
However, it has had some modern revivals, most notably the 1993 performance at the Teatro Comunale Chiabrera in Savona
Savona
Savona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
conducted by Richard Bonynge
Richard Bonynge
Richard Alan Bonynge, AO, CBE is an Australian conductor and pianist.Bonynge was born in Sydney and educated at Sydney Boys High School before studying piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He gave up his music scholarship, continuing his private piano studies, and became a coach for...
with Jolanta Omilian in the title role (a live recording was released on the Agora label), and the 2006 semi-staged production at the Teatro Antico in Taormina
Taormina
Taormina is a comune and small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of Messina, about midway between Messina and Catania. Taormina has been a very popular tourist destination since the 19th century...
conducted by Tyrone Paterson with Simona Baldolini in the title role.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast 28 November 1843 |
|---|---|---|
| Medea Medea Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of... , a sorceress and Giasone's wife |
soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Geltrude Bortolotti |
| Glauce, daughter of Creonte, betrothed to Giasone | soprano | |
| Cassandra, a priestess | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... ) |
|
| Licisca, Medea's servant | contralto | |
| Giasone Jason Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus... |
tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Giovanni Battista Pancani |
| Creonte Creon Creon is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. He had two children with his wife, Eurydice: Megareus and Haemon... , King of Corinth Corinth Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit... |
baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Luigi Valli |
| Calcante, a priest | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Synopsis
- Setting: CorinthCorinthCorinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
in Ancient GreeceAncient GreeceAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
The heroic warrior Giasone
Jason
Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...
, wants to abandon his wife Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
, the mother of his two children to marry Glauce, the daughter of the king of Corinth. In revenge, Medea murders the children and then commits suicide.
Notable arias and duets
- "Odi sola in preda" - duet, Giasone and Medea, Act 1
- "Ah dolci nel seno - Medea in the finale of Act 3 (added in the 1845 Vicenza revision)
Sources
- Amadeus La “Medea” di Pacini a Taormina, 15 June 2006. Online version accessed 25 October 2009 (in Italian).
- Balthazar, S. L., Rose, Michael, and Kaufman, T., "Pacini, Giovanni", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansGrove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
2nd Edition, 2001. ISBN 0333608003 - Casaglia, Gherardo, "28 Novembre 1843" "9 Marzo 1850", "26 Febbraio 1853", Almanacco Amadeus, 2005. Accessed 25 October 2009
- Gelli, Piero (ed.), "Medea", Dizionario dell'Opera, Baldini Castoldi Dalai, 2007, ISBN 8860731844. Accessed online 26 October 2009 (in Italian).
- Pacini, Giovanni, Le mie memorie artistiche, G. G. Guidi, 1865
External links
- Sound clip from Pacini's Medea on Opera Today