Medea

Commissioned by HERMESensemble and Muziektheater Transparant, Wim Henderickx composed MEDEA for musical theatre. Peter Verhelst wrote the text, based on this Greek tragedy. Four actors from the Veenfabriek performed four monologues, directed by Paul Koek. HERMESensemble was conducted by Wim Henderickx, who also played percussion instruments. The concert version of this work, Lamento di Medea, premiered at the Venice Music Biennale in September 2011. The traditional Western flute, clarinet and viola are complemented by duduk, Middle Eastern percussion, electric guitar and electronics. The Turkish Selva Erdener sang a wordless lament. At deSingel in Antwerp in May 2011, the performances were received with rapturous enthusiasm by the audience and the Flemish press: - Stephan Moens in de Morgen: “The result is a rarely seen work of art: a stream of sounds of great beauty, bordering on the precious” (23 May 2011). - Hildegart Maertens in Kwadratuur: “Rarely has the encounter between music, text and direction been as successful as in Medea” (21 May 2011) - Jan-Jakob Delanoye in Cutting Edge: “The artistic end product is a devastatingly relevant and surprisingly layered tragedy, in which three great artists from the Benelux surpass themselves” (20 May 2011). - Greet Van “t veld in Knack: 'All in all, I saw an evocation of the ancient Greek myth in which the music caused the text to burst open like ripe fruit” (20 May 2011) - Maarten Beirens in De Standaard: “It is wonderful how details so aptly determine the musical power here” (20 May 2011)