Medusa the opera
I'm not sure that having a woman protagonist makes a story a feminist story
For christmas, I offered my wife tickets to go see the world premier of "Medusa" by Ian Bell.
It was listed as a new opera about the mythic creature of Medusa.
We didn't like it.
It felt to me like the composer wanted to explore how to write for a monster, but had to make it a little bit a story for the public.
The music was very complicated and dissonant, especially for the first act, when medusa was still a bit human and would go through a tragedy.
In the second act, she was transformed and indeed her voice was amazing, but still with some dissonant background.
The issue was mostly the use of the story.
It started with Medusa and her two sisters. The sisters worried that Poseidon had his eyes set on her.
So they decided to send her to the temple of Athena as an apprentice. Medusa didn't fully understand their decision.
Once at the temple, she had nostalgia for her island with her sisters, and because of her mood, she's been asked to guard the temple at night.
This is when she got raped by Poseidon. The rape lasted long in music and on scene and was quite explicit. Again, mostly I guess for the composer to get the challenge to write the music to rape.
Then Athena arrived and condemns Medusa because she soiled the temple with her blood. Athena victim blames Medusa and transforms her into the monster we know.
In the second act, we discover Medusa transformed, with a monster voice, on an island with her two sisters.
One sister has empathy for Medusa and cries with her - especially because she can't be a mother, the other one tells her to look on the bright side.
Medusa is constantly depressed and men come to the island to try to kill her, or their boats crash as they are also food for the sisters.
Medusa transforms them into stones.
Until Perseus comes and explain to Medusa that he needs to kill her to save his mom, so she tells him he can.
This is where the tragedy finally arrives in this story. Perseus sees that Medusa is kinda human, humane at least, and now has remorse about killing her.
And Medusa tries to find all the ways to convince him to kill her. She wants him to save his mother, and put an end to her suffering.
He doesn't know if he could still see his mum if he commits this crime. And so Medusa forces him to kill her.
And this is the story. Somehow presented as a feminist opera, where the woman is not empowered even with powers, where the only person with a choice is actually the young man. It felt weird to me, and my wife.
I don't know, maybe I am missing a level. Maybe it's like an art-house movie where representing the worst is enough.
The scenography was amazing, and so were the costumes and the voice !
The story was lacking, and it was really not accessible sound wise.
It was listed as a new opera about the mythic creature of Medusa.
We didn't like it.
It felt to me like the composer wanted to explore how to write for a monster, but had to make it a little bit a story for the public.
The music was very complicated and dissonant, especially for the first act, when medusa was still a bit human and would go through a tragedy.
In the second act, she was transformed and indeed her voice was amazing, but still with some dissonant background.
The issue was mostly the use of the story.
It started with Medusa and her two sisters. The sisters worried that Poseidon had his eyes set on her.
So they decided to send her to the temple of Athena as an apprentice. Medusa didn't fully understand their decision.
Once at the temple, she had nostalgia for her island with her sisters, and because of her mood, she's been asked to guard the temple at night.
This is when she got raped by Poseidon. The rape lasted long in music and on scene and was quite explicit. Again, mostly I guess for the composer to get the challenge to write the music to rape.
Then Athena arrived and condemns Medusa because she soiled the temple with her blood. Athena victim blames Medusa and transforms her into the monster we know.
In the second act, we discover Medusa transformed, with a monster voice, on an island with her two sisters.
One sister has empathy for Medusa and cries with her - especially because she can't be a mother, the other one tells her to look on the bright side.
Medusa is constantly depressed and men come to the island to try to kill her, or their boats crash as they are also food for the sisters.
Medusa transforms them into stones.
Until Perseus comes and explain to Medusa that he needs to kill her to save his mom, so she tells him he can.
This is where the tragedy finally arrives in this story. Perseus sees that Medusa is kinda human, humane at least, and now has remorse about killing her.
And Medusa tries to find all the ways to convince him to kill her. She wants him to save his mother, and put an end to her suffering.
He doesn't know if he could still see his mum if he commits this crime. And so Medusa forces him to kill her.
And this is the story. Somehow presented as a feminist opera, where the woman is not empowered even with powers, where the only person with a choice is actually the young man. It felt weird to me, and my wife.
I don't know, maybe I am missing a level. Maybe it's like an art-house movie where representing the worst is enough.
The scenography was amazing, and so were the costumes and the voice !
The story was lacking, and it was really not accessible sound wise.