Last Tuesday, an unusual music-theatre project premiered at the Kammeroper with Medea. Stage Director Corinna von Rad and conductor Benjamin Bayl embarked on a literary and musical search for traces, opening up new perspectives on this fascinating woman. In Baroque operas she was usually portrayed as a raging fury, but around 1820 Franz Grillparzer took her side in his trilogy The Golden Fleece, and by the mid‑20th century cultural history had begun to take a different view of this previously vilified figure. Critics pointed out, for example, that her story had always been told from a male perspective, in which a woman capable of unsettling the masculine world was, almost inevitably, depicted with prejudice. The result is an evening that also addresses current social developments and invites reflection.

The audience rewarded the production with enthusiastic applause and celebrated actor Lisa‑Katrina Mayer as Medea, joined on stage by singers Johannes Bamberger, Johanna Rosa Falkinger, Alois Mühlbacher and Felix Pacher (a CAMPUS collaboration with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). There was unanimous acclaim as well for the direction, the musical leadership, and the Bach Consort Wien.

Medea runs until April 1.