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Bärenreiter's New Edition of Charpentier's Médée Premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin

Nov. 29, 2023

Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s tragic opera, Médée, composed for the Académie royale de musique with a libretto by Thomas Corneille, was premiered on December 4, 1693 in Paris. The work was deemed controversial by contemporary audiences, in large part due to its departure from the musical aesthetic of Jean-Baptiste Lully, whose legacy was a dominating force in French opera of the time. Thomas Soury, Editor of an authoritative new edition of the opera for Bärenreiter, aptly notes:

"Because of its musical and literary qualities, Médée is undoubtedly one of the most frequently performed French Baroque operas after the Ramiste corpus. To date, however, there is no recent, readily available edition. The one we are currently preparing for Bärenreiter is based on the general score printed by Ballard, the only authoritative source of the work. Although a few manuscript excerpts do exist, they appear in secondary sources with no connection to Charpentier. 

The work was published a year after its premiere and seems to have been slightly revised by the composer unless these changes were the result of alterations made during rehearsals and performances. The edition points out these discrepancies. It also proposes a return to Corneille’s more forceful text, which has sometimes changed slightly. The spelling of the libretto has been completely modernized to make it easier for non-French-speaking musicians to read. The edition also attempts to clarify incomplete or inconsistent information in the Ballard source concerning ornamentation, orchestration and basso continuo figures. It also clarifies certain scenographic information not always clearly mentioned in the sources. Finally, the presentation is adapted to the new demands and knowledge of early music performers, and should make this edition of “Médée” the reference edition."

Read more about the new edition in a feature for [t]akte here.

This excellent new performing edition of Médée was utilized for the first time this month at the Staatsoper Berlin in a production led by conductor Sir Simon Rattle and director Peter Sellers, featuring Magdalena Kožená in the title role.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Médée, H. 491.
Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts
Text (Fr.) by Thomas Corneille. Edited by Thomas Soury.
Cast: Prologue: Le Chef des habitants, bass - Berger héroïque 1, tenor - Berger héroïque 2, baritone - Bergère héroïque 1, soprano - Bergère héroïque 2, soprano - La Victoire, soprano - Bellone, mezzo-soprano - La Gloire, mezzo-soprano | Tragédie: Médée, mezzo-soprano - Nérine, mezzo-soprano - Jason, tenor - Arcas, soprano - Créon, bass - Oronte, bass-baritone - Créuse, mezzo-soprano - Cléone, mezzo-soprano - Corinthien 1, tenor - Corinthien 2, baritone - Un Argien, bass - L’Amour, soprano - Captive 1, soprano - Captive 2, mezzo-soprano - Une Captive italienne, mezzo-soprano - Un Captif, tenor - La Jalousie, baritone - La Vengeance, bass - Fantôme 1, mezzo-soprano - Fantôme 2, mezzo-soprano
Mixed Choir
Ballet
2.2.0.0-0.2.0.0-timp-str-b.c.
180'

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