State Opera - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2010 - 100 Euro Cent

When Aribert Reimann's opera "Medea" celebrates its eagerly anticipated premiere at the Vienna State Opera on February 28, 2010, this musical event will again be philately accompanied by its own special stamp from Österreichische Post AG. The artistic motif of the brand shows the expressive stage design, created by Marco Arturo Marelli. Marelli, born in Zurich, was first an assistant in Vienna, Salzburg and at the Hamburg State Opera, before he made his debut as director in 1981 in Mainz with the staging of the "Magic Flute". This was followed by engagements at the Vienna State Opera, the Dresden Semperoper, the Opéra de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the opera houses in Tokyo, Helsinki, Zurich, Madrid and Barcelona. In addition to operas of the Baroque and the 19th century, he has made a name for himself in recent years as a director of contemporary works. Medea is a well-known female figure of Greek mythology. The oldest preserved source is the Medea drama of Euripides, but this certainly allows for assumptions about much earlier versions of the material. For example, some recent theories claim that in the older versions of the myth Medea was mostly portrayed as a self-assured and enchanted woman; it was Euripides who first redesigned the myth; there is no clear evidence for this. The well-known content - Medea revenges herself out of jealousy by the murder of her children together with her unfaithful husband Jason - was repeatedly re-recorded both in music and in literature. Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Pierre Corneille, Franz Grillparzer and Christa Wolf, to name but a few, each took up the Medea theme in a timely manner and interpreted the myth in many different ways. Aribert Reimann, undoubtedly one of the most important and sought-after composers of the present day , Creator of numerous successful music theater works, created his own access to Medea for the Vienna State Opera, following Grillparzer's version. The premiere in "Haus am Ring" is therefore being watched with great attention by the international opera world. Speaking of "Haus am Ring": Because the old opera theater next to the Kärntnertore proved to be too small for most operas of the 19th century, it was once decided to build a new, larger opera house as part of the expansion of the Vienna Ringstrasse on this new splendid boulevard build. Architects were commissioned by Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg. On May 25, 1869, the new Vienna State Opera was finally opened with Mozart's "Don Giovanni". Reimann's "Medea" now joins a long list of memorable opera premieres in Vienna.