Best World Première of the Year: "Medea" by Aribert Reimann

Aribert Reimann's opera Medea is the best world première of the year 2010. This was the result of the critics' survey in the yearbook of the magazine "Opernwelt" published today. As every year, fifty international opera critics were asked to name the best work, with most of them voting, by a clear margin, for Reimann's tragedy. Medea was performed for the first time at the Vienna State Opera on 28 February in a production by Marco Arturo Marelli. Reimann dedicated his opera to the director of the Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender, whose 18-year reign ended this summer. The soprano Marlis Petersen, singer of the title role, was chosen by the critics as "best female singer of the year".

At present, the Viennese production of Medea is performed at the Frankfurt Opera, the next performances being on 8 and 16 October. The Vienna State Opera will see its revival on 30 November.

Aribert Reimann is regarded as the most distinguished German opera composer of today. His last opera Bernarda Albas Haus (2001), too, was chosen as "best world premire of the year".

• Aribert Reimann - Profil
  
• Website der Opernwelt
  
• Weitere Informationen zu Medea