Medea’s Lament

For soprano, violin, cello, and piano
Performed by Hannah Bein, Bryant So, Mika Hyman, and Karina Wugang
Theo Trevisan, conductor
December 2021, Princeton, NJ

Text:

Medea’s Lament
by Bryant So
Based off Euripedes’s Medea

Oh sorrow, oh sweet sorrow
What am I, but the deepest, sweetest sorrow
A woman with nothing, a woman shattered, a woman stripped
Can only be made of sorrow

Wretched hand, what are you doing?
Wretched hand, where are you going?
Wretched hand, wretched-wretched-wretched... wretched no more…

Yes, let it be done
Yes, quickly, urgently, make your way to the warm steel
My heart has decided, no use in waiting
For the children are a part of you no longer
They once had a home in your womb and your heart
Home...home? home…
There is no home

Do it, do it now, make haste
Before doubt fills your veins
For as quickly as they cease to exist
So will I from this land

I’ve done it, my friends
Do you see?
I’ve saved them
But destroyed him