Grillparzer showed Medea as a foreigner without protection who becomes the victim of powerful men, a view of the tragedy appealing to Reimann.[5] In a performance at the Komische Oper Berlin, staged by Benedict Andrews with Nicole Chevalier in the title role, Medea is shown as a barbarian woman, a stranger to the society and therefore expelled.[6]
A reviewer of the premiere notes that the vocal lines are highly ornamented, full of melisma, and with sharply jagged contours ("wild gezackt, scharf geschnitten"), demanding virtuosity from the singers. The metre changes without rest, also in the orchestra. The strings are divided multiple times, while the winds often have solo function. The vocal style was described as highly artificial ("hochartifiziell").[1]
^Carlà, Filippo; Berti, Irene (2016). Ancient Magic and the Supernatural in the Modern Visual and Performing Arts. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN978-1350007949. Reimann's work, following Franz Grillparzer's Medea (1820), the primary source for the libretto, can safely be ascribed to the second type. Reimann's social and political interpretation of Medea's magical abilities allows him to reflect on the violence of the power that fears and distrusts – but at the same time needs – the unknown, the foreigner.
^"Medea". Schott Music. 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2019. Uraufführung: 28. Februar 2010 Wien, Staatsoper (A)
