Georg Benda: Medea | Joseph Haydn

“We attended two performances of Benda’s "Medea" with the greatest of pleasure. Nothing has ever impressed me more! The combining of prose and music is most pleasing. Benda has composed a second ‘melodrama’, "Ariadne on Naxos", and both are truly admirable. I love both works so much that I keep them with me always. Benda is one of my favourite composers”.

So wrote the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his father, describing his enthusiasm on attending a performance of “Medea” in Mannheim. In the 18th century, the term ‘melodrama’ was used to denote a form sufficiently avant-garde by the standards of the day to have made an impression on the young Wolfgang’s genius: a theatrical work with a musical accompaniment, but with recitations in place of songs. Karyofyllia Karabeti, one of the finest Medeas in the contemporary theatre, breathes new life into the libretto, while the Camerata’s period instruments bring us closer to the spare symphonic sound of the Classical period.

The first part of the concert will feature Joseph Haydn’s celebrated “Surprise” symphony. What’s the surprise? Come and find out...