MAYR : MEDEA IN CORINTO

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 10th of October 2010 at 3.04 - 5 pm 

INDUCTION 
COMPOSER
SYNOPSIS
REVIEW
ANALYSIS
LIBRETTO (Italian)

MAYR: Medea in Corinto, an opera in two acts
(recorded in the Bavarian State Opera, Munich)
Medea.......................... Nadja Michael
Giasone......................... Ramón Vargas
Creonte......................... Alastair Miles
Creusa.......................... Elena Tsallagova
Ismene.......................... Laura Nicorescu
Egeo............................. Alek Shrader
Evandro........................ Kenneth Roberson
Tideo............................ Francesco Petrozzi
Bavarian State Opera Chorus & Orch/Ivor Bolton

Giovanni Simone MAYR (or Johannes Simon Maier) (163-1845) was a Bavarian who moved to Italy, and this opera, his most successful, has been revived in his homeland. He was not Jewish, though his name is (and my father's grandmother had this surname before she became a Colless).

Under ANALYSIS we have an appreciation of his life and work, and a synopsis of this opera, with many extracts from the libretto accompanied by English translations; it comes from The Harmonicon (1826).

The Italian LIBRETTO is also an ancient book.

My retelling of the story of Jason and Medea, and the Golden Fleece, is here.

Jason and his lover Medea had fled from her homeland with the golden fleece. They eventually reached Corinth, where Jason fell in love with Princess Creusa. Jason is going to marry her, and let her be mother to Medea's children. Medea obtains vengeance: she causes the death of Creusa, and kills her own children.