Medea Reviews

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...In director David McVicar's unnerving production, now at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Elena Villalón is seen at a bouffant, rococo nuptial, her guests in celebrity Franco-Italinate attire but with ominous, glowing red eyes. She sings with fragility of her joy with Giasone (Matthew Polenzani), a happiness she worries will be short-lived. Soon, the doors of a vault-like apparatus close, Glauce and her crew are entombed and Sondra Radvanovsky's Medea crawls into view, as if from the gutter."

Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended

"...Riveting, all-out, all-encompassing. That's the kind of towering performance Sondra Radvanovsky delivers in Lyric Opera of Chicago's first-ever production of "Medea," adding a memorable chapter to an already distinguished career and opening the company's 2025-26 with a thunderclap."

Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended

"...Lyric Opera rarely stages anything written before the nineteenth century, apart from Mozart and the occasional Handel and Gluck, so it is a true treat to have Cherubini's Medea open the new season. Never before produced at Lyric, Medea has been surprisingly slow to enter the operatic canon. Yet it's a far more attractive opera than similarly dark offerings like Strauss's Elektra or Verdi's Macbeth. As with Lyric's most recent productions of those operas, this one also is directed by David McVicar. His work is always dark and horrific, sometimes questionable, and rarely boring. Medea is no different."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Medea is a figure from classical mythology who has been the subject of endless fascination ever since the tragedian Euripides innovated the notion that she slew her children to get revenge on her husband for abandoning her. Luigi Cherubini's opera, which debuted in 1797 and has a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman that adapts a play by Pierre Corneille, was not the last word on her, but in terms of the dramatic power of its music, it might never be surpassed. The new co-production at the Lyric Opera, directed by Sir David McVicar and conducted by Lyric Music Director Enrique Mazzola, is a very straightforward telling of the story save for the end, but one that captures enormous emotions and a riveting performance by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the titular role."

Buzz Center Stage - Highly Recommended

"...With a cast of operatic Olympians, visionary direction, and music that blazes with wrath and beauty, Medea sets the tone for a season defined by bold storytelling and emotional intensity. Medea marks the return of three Chicago-born international stars to the Lyric stage, superstar soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in an Olympic-level performance of the title role, acclaimed tenor Matthew Polenzani, and the rising star mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...The Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2025/26 season with a blockbuster with Italian composer Luigi Cherubini's Medea. Just hearing the name evokes a dark tale of obsession, misogyny, and vengeance. This production was directed by Sir David McVicar, who also did the dazzling, superb set design. Maestro Enrique Mazzola is firmly in the constellation of the best conductors of opera. The key to this outstanding production is soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, who has made the role hers with an excellent performance as Medea."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...But make no mistake: This is Medea's opera. Arguably the greatest of several candidates for best mad scene in an opera is the finale, which Radvanovsky brought off with heart-pounding excitement on opening night, while McVicar's terrifying staging refreshingly augmented the diabolical effect of the music rather than fighting against it."