About the work
Médée is a tragédie mise en musique in a prologue and five acts by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, to a libretto by Thomas Corneille. It is Charpentier's only opera written for the Académie Royale de Musique and premiered on 4 December 1693 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris.
Plot
The sorceress Médée has betrayed her homeland and family for Jason, who now intends to marry princess Créüse instead. In revenge, Médée kills her rival with a poisoned robe and finally stabs her own children before escaping on a dragon-drawn chariot.
Cultural significance
Although performed before Louis XIV and praised by contemporaries such as Sébastien de Brossard, the opera failed to establish itself and was only rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the major works of French Baroque opera.