"A beautifully focused performance that revealed another masterpiece of the Baroque master - The music is the thing, and in this particular opera there is some of the most consistently beautiful in the composer's vast output."
-- SF Chronicle
"Passion, raging jealousy and tormenting revenge. Not the stuff of high comedy, one might say. Unless, of course, Donald Pippin is involved. Handel's enchanting Italian arias mixed with Pippin's delightfully deadpan English narration proved, as always, to be a surefire recipe for high merriment."
-- Palo Alto Times
Teseo has all the vitality one might expect from this springtime of Handel's life. The melodies tumble out, each one fast on the heels of another - joyful and serious, serene and haunting, magical and malicious. A rapturous delight, a richly rewarding experience."
-- The Voice
Medea, the famed sorceress, has long been remembered for a spectacular day in which, to punish her faithless lover, she murdered their two small children, set fire to her successful rival and poisoned the girl's aged father before riding off on a flaming chariot drawn by winged dragons.
Now ten years later, we are soon to find out if Medea has mellowed - - or not. The signs are not good. Despite knowing all too well that love has ever been her mortal enemy, she is in love again. Consumed as never before by an implacable but irresistible passion, she broods, she pines, she languishes, she burns. For whom? None other than Teseo, the brave and handsome young soldier, hero of the day, who almost single handedly has defended the city with a ferocity thought to be found only in legend
Never timid, never inclined to hold back, she is not slow to act. With smoldering eyes and melting smiles, she approaches Teseo seductively and in her softest, most languorous tones asks him if his interests lie exclusively on the rugged battlefield. Has he not yet felt the need for the sweeter things in life? Have the charms of a woman never tempted him? Now that the battle is over, is he not perhaps ready for love? Teseo, totally failing to grasp what she is driving at, replies with rapturous candor that she understands him perfectly. Indeed, she must have read his mind. How else could she have known that he is madly in love with beautiful, adorable Agilea?
A setback, no doubt. But for Medea, the battle has just begun, a battle that she is determined not to lose. One does not envy beautiful, adorable Agilea.
Pocket Opera | 469 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 | 415-972-8930
