Medusa
Poseidon demands Medusa’s submission. Hoping to protect her, her sisters send her to live with the priestesses of Athena’s temple. But the god of the sea emerges from the waves and rapes the young woman, defiling the temple. To punish her for this desecration, Athena turns Medusa into a monstrous creature: her hair becomes a nest of snakes and her gaze turns anyone who looks at her to stone. This terrifying power arouses the lust of heroes, who pursue her in her exile…
An iconic figure in Greek mythology, Medusa has inspired artists throughout the centuries, including Da Vinci, Rubens, Caravaggio, Cellini, Rodin and Picasso, among many others. In this new score commissioned by La Monnaie, composer Iain Bell and director and librettist Lydia Steier explore the human dimension of this great myth. Given voice by soprano Claudia Boyle, Medusa is reborn live on OperaVision as a complex and deeply moving woman, alone amid the stone statues of those who, in their thirst for glory, tried to destroy her. Dare to meet her gaze and perhaps you will see who she really is.
Trigger warning – This performance contains, at the end of the first act, a scene of explicit sexual violence that may be distressing.
Cast
|
Medusa
|
Claudia Boyle
|
|---|---|
|
Euryale
|
Paula Murrihy
|
|
Stheno
|
Angela Denoke
|
|
Perseus
|
Josh Lovell
|
|
Poseidon
|
Konstantin Gorny
|
|
Athena
|
Mary Elizabeth Williams
|
|
High Priestess
|
Anu Komsi
|
|
Danaë
|
Marie-Juliette Ghazarian
|
|
Orchestra
|
La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra
|
|
Chorus
|
La Monnaie Chorus Academy
|
| ... | |
|
Music
|
Iain Bell
|
|---|---|
|
Text
|
Lydia Steier
|
|
Director
|
Lydia Steier
|
|
Conductor
|
Michiel Delanghe
|
|
Sets
|
Flurin Borg Madsen
|
|
Costume designer
|
Katharina Schlipf
|
|
Lights
|
Elana Siberski
|
|
Dramaturge
|
Mareike Wink
|
|
Chorus master
|
Emmanuel Trenque
|
| ... | |
Videos
Gallery
