Medusa restores a lost mythological female voice to its rightful sound. She poses the question: who is she? A question we might just as well ask of a Lucrezia (Borgia) or a Lucia (di Lammermoor).
Iain Bell, Lydia Steier and De Munt bring their own Medusa. Multiple questions arose that evening: "Why does Medusa need a voice? Why (yet another) mythological opera?". I ask myself which string is being struck. Why not? Is this not precisely about the woman and not "yet again" the myth?
Medusa is not only a new contemporary opera, but also a path toward new interpretations and characters. Bell & Steier are already looking refreshingly beyond the original – male – myth.
Who/what is (the) Medusa?
The Medusa myth is well-known. Many heroes die at her feet, until Perseus defeats her. But, who is Medusa? Pop culturally, Greek mythology is sometimes summarized as "Zeus/Poseidon/… desired the beautiful x, with all the consequences that entailed". The woman is reduced to a prop that sets the game in motion. She pays the price: she transforms into a cow (Io), a bear (Callisto) or, in the case of Medusa, a gorgon with serpent hair and a deadly gaze.
"We are filling in the dot dot dot after Poseidon sexually assaults Medusa," sounds from team Bell and Steier. Medusa explores pain and shared trauma.1 Make no mistake: Medusa is a challenge to translate, because the hidden core revolves around sexual abuse, trauma and powerlessness – something the original myth ignores. Bell and Steier expose what Medusa's fate truly entails.
Sexual harassment and abuse are certainly not new in opera history (De Munt's upcoming opera, the recurring Villalobos production of Puccini's Tosca, is an example of this).2 But they are often driving forces that are quickly, or even lightly, glossed over. Haven't we finally moved past that mentality? Medusa has certainly got it right.
"Sleep my starchild, sleep"
Who says Medusa (soprano Claudia Boyle), says Perseus (tenor Josh Lovell). Bell & Steier interweave their myths without doing Medusa's story injustice. This through a melodic lullaby that forms a tragic leitmotif throughout the opera. "Sleep my starchild, sleep," sing both Perseus' mother Danaë (mezzo-soprano Marie-Juliette Ghazarian) and pseudo-mother Medusa.
The orchestral composition is a threatening, dissonantly sounding hussar piece that stretches and hovers behind this leitmotif. The opera opens with an invisible, ominous spirit chorus. The men's choir seems to represent Poseidon's (bass Konstantin Gorny) threatening intent. This before we even see the cruel god. The influences of Richard Strauss' Elektra (1909) are palpably present. Psychology and emotion resound in atonal dissonance. It is free of melody, unless painful desires are touched upon.
This alternates with the closed female world, depicted by Athena's priestess chorus. This too is cruel and disjointed. It is here that Gorny's Poseidon strikes. The opera makes excellent use of his powerful bass voice for this. The rape of Medusa is brief – banally brief – compared to the consequences that follow. The merciless Athena, impressively portrayed by soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, rages with a steely flood of sound against her priestesses. The Finnish soprano Anu Komsi (High Priestess) sets the mad consequences of their failure with her bright voice. Madness, rage, and not a shred of pity for "the whore" who has dishonored Athena's temple. Medusa transforms: her identity is taken from her.
Act two is an introspection. The woman Medusa does not exist; she is a monster. Surrounded by her gorgon sisters (mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy as Euryale and soprano Angela Denoke as Stheno) she feels disjointed. Her sweet voice is replaced by a desperate tone. Short melismatic sections fragment back to bel canto mad scenes, as in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1835). The tragic, but also moving, duet between Medusa and "the star child" Perseus reveals the longing with which she wishes to die: her own (family) dreams that have been brutally taken from her.
With Medusa, Bell, Steier and De Munt touch something deeply integral. It is a production that must be seen, both for its subject matter, composition and talented cast. I asked Bell the question "Can we give more women in (opera) history their voices back?" I already have the feeling that Medusa is certainly not the last time we will hear these women. Let us begin, but certainly not end, with Medusa.
1 This section is a paraphrase based on the press conference with Iain Bell and Lydia Steier. This was prior to the opera premiere on 05/05/2026. 2 The 2026 opera production of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (17/06-01/07/2026) is a revival of De Munt's successful 2021 production. Direction is by Rafael R. Villalobos.
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