Adaptations include orchestral reductions (The Clever One by Carl Orff (17 Players), The Perfect American by Philip Glass), the creation of new stories within works (Maria de Buenos Aires), revised or new stories (Winterreise, The Fairy Queen, The Diary of Anne Frank), and new reduced stage versions (Macbeth by Ernest Bloch - 110 minute one act for 7 singers, Medea by Luigi Cherubini - 95 minute one act for 7 singers).
...a radicalized version of Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea”. The setting is an indistinct postmodern time zone. Jason, in a white dinner jacket and loose tie leaves Medea for Dirce, a Paris Hilton-like party girl -- the daughter of a creepy Creon, king of Corinth. Medea is a sorceress, one arm snaked with sinuous tattoos, in a modern gown.
The production begins with an excerpt from Euripides as prologue before the overture. And Mitisek had the brilliant stroke to use the orchestral introduction of Act 3 as background music for a vivid description of Medea’s exploits of destruction taken from Corneille and devastatingly declaimed by Southwell (her eyes penetrating like lasers) and Dirce’s two serving maids (Ariel Pisturino and Diana Tash).
Mitisek conducted his fine small orchestra with exactly the right combination of classical discipline and dramatic fire.