Search - Luigi Cherubini, Horst Stein, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra :: Cherubini: Medea [Highlights]

Buy it for Rysanek

opernnarr | Carrboro, NC USA | 11/19/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc preserves the choicest moments from the premiere of an August Everding production at the Vienna State Opera in 1972. The sound is good, and the well-filled disc includes most of the opera, omitting only some of the longer instrumental and choral scenes. This should be no one's first version, but as a supplement it's essential in order to experience Rysanek's Medea. Rysanek adds important nuances to this character unavailable in other recordings.The great Austrian soprano was not a natural fit for Medea. She has problems with the coloratura, simplifying some of Cherubini's more awkward phrases. Her intonation is chancy, too, and this is the only recording of her's I've ever heard in which she sounds tired at the end. (Not surprisingly, since this is one of the most strenuous roles in all of opera.) Yet I know of no more moving rendition of the final scene than Rysanek's. Here Medea is less a crazed beast than a deeply hurt, wronged woman, and she emerges as a much more sympathetic figure than Callas's Medea ever did. For all of Callas's skill, I find her Medea unlikeable, even a bit of a caricature: hysterical, monstrous, harpie-like. I'm not surprised in the least when she kills her children to avenge Jason. Rysanek's Medea, in contrast, is a needy, deeply emotional, very feminine figure who sounds rather like Sieglinde gone wrong. She is driven to her horrible deeds by profound psychological pain, which Rysanek conveys magnificently. "Numi, venite a me" is heartbreaking in its sadness. One senses that this Medea has not convinced herself that her actions are right, but performs them out of fear and hurt. Her final phrase is as much a self-indictment as an accusation of Jason--it must have been chilling to experience live. As always with this singer, she doesn't just act the role well, she *lives* it.The rest of the cast is unspectacular: Prevedi sounds even more bored than he did for the Decca studio recording of 1967; Ghiuselev and Lilowa are nothing special; and the usually divine Lucia Popp isn't quite at her best here. As per Staatsoper tradition, Stein makes lots of cuts in order to get everyone home by 11:00. For $5, anyone who appreciates this opera should hear what Rysanek made of the title role. It's another example of her rare gift, and perhaps all the more impressive for being in a repertoire that she did not sing all the time."