(Credit: Simon van Rompay)

This week La Monnaie opened the world premiere of Iain Bell’s new opera “Medusa.” The work explores the human dimension of the Medusa myth, headlined by soprano Claudia Boyle, who showcases Medusa as reborn as a complex and deeply moving woman, alone amid the stone statues of those who, in their thirst for glory, tried to destroy her.

A winner of the First Prize and the Critics Award at The Maria Calla Competition in Verona, the soprano has built a reputation as one of the finest Irish opera singers of her generation. Her career has seen successes at the Royal Opera House, Komische Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Danish National Opera. Her repertoire is immense, featuring contemporary works as well as bel canto and romantic operas like “Lucia di Lammermoor,” Gilda in “Rigoletto,” Tytania in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Leila in “The Pearl Fishers,” and most famously the title role in “Alice’s Adventures Underground.”

For those not in Brussels for the new work, Operavision will stream the opera in a later performance.

Recordings 

Here is a look at Boyle in a production of “La Traviata” from the English National Opera and in an aria from “Linda di Chamounix.”