Seneca fonte di 'Médée' di Luigi Cherubini

Abstract

The scholars who have considered the relationship between François-Benoît Hoffman's libretto for Cherubini's opera Médée and ist sources have numbered among the latter Euripides and Corneille, and recently also the French theatrical tradition. Only indirectly or occasionally and marginally, however, have they included Seneca. Nonetheless, a thorough study of the original libretto and the Roman tragedy, combined with a detailed comparative reading of the texts hitherto recognized as sources, have brought to light a different state of affairs, which is also supported by textual findings. Seneca turns out to be not only a direct source, but also an important model as regards the conception of the libretto, the characterization of the work's protagonists and the actual staging itself.