Michael Roider

A psychological interpretation of the opera mixing in references to the history of Germany, Wagner’s life, German literature and philosophy. The action is centered on Wagner’s death mask. Kundry is the main character – one might read the film as the story of her redemption rather than that of Amfortas.

Once upon a time, a Prince was hunting at night, his name was Prince Arindal and he encounters a beautiful fairy called Ada. It was love at first sight and they fell in love immediately. Arindal decides that he should always be at Ada's side in the fairy realm. The Fairy king warns that if Arindal should ever leave Ada alone for longer than a year, then she will turn into stone. The Prince finds himself having to leave Ada- will he be back in time? This "Oper für Kinder" version has been shortened down to a compact 45 minutes from the original 3 hour opera.

Aribert Reimann is one of the worlds most important living composers. His works are performed regularly all over the world. Now comes his latest opera - Medea. Roughly 30 authors have written works based on this ancient myth but it was the play by Franz Grillparzer which inspired Reimann most: »In no other version is it made so brutally clear that Medea is an outsider. () Right from the start of act one my mind was flooded by musical ideas and by the end of the second act I really thought my head would burst. Vienna State Opera succeeded in recruiting Marco Arturo Marelli a man with a world-wide reputation, especially for global premieres as director and scenographer for this performance. Unusually for a world premiere, the first series of performances of the opera were a huge success amongst audiences and press alike. The public stormed the box office and ticket sales by far exceeded availability. A Sold Out notice had to be put up for virtually every performance!