Medea (italian Version by Carlo Zangarini)

Luigi Cherubini's Medea stands as one of the most formidable tragic operas in the repertoire, with Carlo Zangarini's Italian libretto unlocking the full dramatic potential of Euripides' ancient masterpiece. The work traces the shattering dissolution of Medea's marriage to Jason, who abandons his sorceress wife to wed the Corinthian princess Glauce. Cast into exile with her two young sons, Medea descends through escalating emotional terrain—from desperate pleading to righteous fury—as she confronts the unbearable knowledge that she has sacrificed everything for a man who now views her as expendable. Cherubini's score, written originally in French but transformed through Zangarini's intervention, harnesses neoclassical discipline and Romantic intensity to chart Medea's psychological unraveling. The music surges with her rage, trembles with her vulnerability, and ultimately captures the terrible logic of a woman whose supernatural gifts and passionate nature become instruments of destruction. This is a portrait of abandonment, maternal devotion twisted into something irrevocable, and the collision between a woman's identity and a man's ambition. The opera demands a soprano of extraordinary vocal stamina and emotional fearlessness, for Medea is less a sympathetic protagonist than a force of nature—commanding, terrifying, and utterly transfixing.