Cherubini: Médée
- Director:Stéphane Metge
- WriterFrançois-Benoît Hoffmann, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Christian Longchamp
- Stars:Nadja Michael, Kurt Streit, Christianne Stotijn, Vincent Le Texier, Hendrickje van Kerckhove, Gaëlle Arquez
Médée, Opéra-comique de trois actes de Luigi Cherubini, 1797
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini. The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman (Nicolas Étienne Framéry) was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée. It is set in the ancient city of Corinth.
The opera was premiered on 13 March 1797 at the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris. It met with a lukewarm reception and was not immediately revived. During the twentieth century, it was usually performed in Italian translation as Medea, with the spoken dialogue replaced by recitatives not authorized by the composer. More recently, opera companies have returned to Cherubini's original version.
The long-lost final aria, which Cherubini appears to have elided from his original manuscript, was discovered by researchers from the University of Manchester and Stanford University by employing x-ray techniques to reveal the blackened out areas of Cherubini's manuscript.
