18th century musicologist Charles Burney wrote of the accompanied recitatives for Medea:in which the wild and savage fury of the enraged sorceress, Medea, and her incantations, are admirably painted by the instruments.Charles Burney: A General History of Music: from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. Vol. 4, London 1789, reprint: Cambridge University Press 2010, , p. 242.
