Drama and More Drama! Inside The Metropolitan Opera’s Opening Night for Medea

If last night’s Fall season opening for The Metropolitan Opera could be summed up in a few words, it would be: “Hell hath no fury like Medea!” Medea, the three-act opera, which was composed by Luigi Cherubini and premiered in Paris in 1797, made its Met Opera debut last night, and the story is dark—even by opera’s standards.

Based on the Greek tragedian Euripides’s tale of Medea, the opera is centered on a scorned Medea whose thirst for vengeance can only be quenched with murder. Impulses to get back at Jason, her ex-husband who is planning to remarry, are so overbearing, she cries out wicked plans to kill not only her ex’s new bride but the two sons she shares with him. The audience follows Medea’s deeply derganged thoughts as she makes sinister flip-flops between what’s more powerful, the love she has for her children or her hate of Jason. In the end, things don't fare well for her offspring. 

For this production, the role of Medea, which is associated with the legendary soprano Maria Callas, was undertaken by Sondra Radvanovsky. “Radvanovsky would have deserved credit simply for showing up and taking on one of opera’s most daunting vocal and dramatic challenges,” writes The New York Times, and at the premiere, she delivered an “impressive and enjoyable, if not quite crushing, performance.”

Directed by David McVicar, who also designs the set for this production, Medea is also cast with tenor Matthew Polenzani and soprano Jania Brugger, who both deliver riveting performances. Medea is conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and Medea’s poor two little boys were played by Axel Newville and Magnus Newville.

The night represented a significant moment for The Met Opera—the company has a celebrated repertoire that leaves little room for new arrivals—and the showgoers were there to take part. Sitting in the audience were Renée Fleming, Brooke Shields, Molly Ringwald, Sigourney Weaver, Christine Baranski, Zoe Lister-Jones, Helena Christensen, Ellen Burstyn, Griffin Dunne, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Yelena Yemchuk, Louisa Jacobson, Nico Tortorella, Paul Feig, Jeremy O. Harris, Gina Gershon, Jordan Roth and more.

Following the performance, guests moved over from the Swarovksi chandeliered theater to a nearby tent in the Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park for a gala supper. At tables clustered with hurricane lanterns and the glow of lit tapered candles, guests took their seats for the event, which was chaired by Daisy Soros. 

Following the entrance of Radvanovsky, who arrived fashionably late after a costume change from her witchy black lace ensemble worn onstage to a more chic black velvet Escada gown, guests rose for another round of applause and remarks from Soros and Petet Gelb, general manager of The Metropolitan Opera. “For those of you wondering about the welfare and whereabouts of Axel and Magnus Newville, the brothers who play Medea’s children, they're now home and Sondra hugs them after every performance. So they should be okay,” he joked, alluding to the disturbings scene where they lay on the stage in blood-stained smocks. Gelb continued to provide a little comedic relief. “In The New York Times this week, Sondra is quoted as saying playing the bloody role of Medea is the best psychotherapy she could ask for. Since I've always known that the opera house is not that different than an insane asylum, I'm grateful that the connection has been finally confirmed.” In other words? Medea is crazy good.