Epidaurus: 10,000-strong ovation for National Opera's 'Medea'

Published on

22/06/2026 - 15:10 GMT+2

Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea”, presented by the Greek National Opera at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus on Saturday 20 June, was greeted with rapturous acclaim.

Ten thousand spectators applauded the highly refined reconstruction of the historic production of Medea, which Maria Callas had sung on the same stage in 1961.

Tickets for this grand revival had sold out as early as February.

The Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi took on the title role and won warm applause for both her vocal and dramatic performance:

“This role is very difficult, among other things because you have to act it," she said. "It’s not enough simply to sing it. You have to interpret it. You have to inhabit the woman who is Medea, the sorceress and the terrible murder she commits at the end, when she kills her children. So you really have to put yourself in her place, to inhabit Medea’s character 100%. That is very hard, especially here, in this theatre, where Maria Callas performed the role so magnificently.”

The 1961 production was directed by Alexis Minotis, with sets and costumes by Yannis Tsarouchis and choreography by Maria Hors.

The production embarked on its triumphant journey in 1958 at Dallas Opera, continued in 1959 at London’s Royal Opera House, left its indelible mark in 1961 at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, and concluded its run in 1962 at La Scala in Milan.

This latest undertaking was extremely challenging, as there is no video recording of that production. The reconstruction of Medea was created after many years of research into the surviving archival materials held in the Historical Archive of the Greek National Opera, at the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, and in private archives and collections:

“We only have photographs from that production, and they’re in black and white," explained the Greek National Opera’s artistic director, Giorgos Koumendakis. "Those images helped us recreate the set. It was different with the costumes, because we had around 150 of Yannis Tsarouchis’ original costumes from that period. If you look at the result today, you can’t tell the difference between the original and what we have created now.”

The Medea performance at Epidaurus formed part of this season’s thematic strand at the Greek National Opera, “The opera of the future through the matrix of the past”.