Idomeneo, Mozart seria

Lyn Richards
Aug 7
5 min read

Updated: Aug 15

Idomeneo is poised at the pass between Baroque and Classical opera. Commissioned for an opera seria, Mozart turned to Greek mythology - a common source of opera stories. Idomeneo was his first major opera success and his last use of such sources. Already (at 24) he interwove those mythological themes with more recognisably human drama, and his following operas were to be concentrated on the humans.

And the music! Albert Einstein put it this way: “Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven

created his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely

found it—that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be

revealed.”

"In Idomeneo, the set-piece arias, dry recitatives and familiar, mythical characters are all there. But so are deeply emotional ensembles, lyrical and inventive arias, and music and characters so fresh, that in this new example of an old style, the familiar conventions burst wide open." Read on here.

Making opera from myths

Idomeneus was a Cretan king who fought in the Trojan War (he was one of Helen's suitors so he had to - and he was even in the Trojan horse!)

Homer's Odyssey simply notes he made a safe return. But later traditions tell of a storm, and a fateful vow to Poseidon .

The lesson of course is don't accept a deal that means if you survive you will kill the first person you meet - when you don't know who that will be. But the themes are duty, especially to the gods but also human duty, heroism and tragedy.

To save his ship and his men, King Idomeneus vowed if Poseidon called off the storm, he would sacrifice the first human life he encountered on land.

Safely ashore, he met his own son.

One version of the myth has him making the sacrifice, thus evoking the vengeance of the gods upon the people of Crete, leading to his exile from Crete.

Le retour d'Idomédée, oeuvre de Gamelin, Musée des Augustins Palais Niel, Toulouse

Mozart's librettist implausibly created another ending, with an uncharacteristically kind response from Poseidon and a different, triumphant last scene for the chorus. And the opera also inserted into the soup of duty to gods and heroic handling of tragedy a very human subplot of love, hate, humiliation, jealousy and of course happy ending.

Full synopsis is here.

Or if you're feeling irreverent, check out John Grace's Digested Version.

Enter the Enlightenment

Mozart's life and work were to become deeply intertwined with the Enlightenment, and its emphasis on reason, freedome, individualism, and human progress. This opera shows that trend - taking a Greek myth about unreasonable gods and making it a story of human desires and duties, decisions and actions.

"It is an opera in which fate conspires against man and man defies the gods; but, unlike in the original myth (and indeed the 1712 libretto on which Mozart’s Idomeneo was based), man is not brought to a reckoning by the gods, but spared by reasoning. This is not the Greek drama of Euripides or Aeschylus, but rather a drama of the Enlightenment, where man is the subject of the benevolent Christian God, or is not the subject of any god at all. Humanity and forgiveness drive the drama of this opera and in this respect Idomeneo is an opera of its time; man is not ruled by gods, but is an individual living life according to his own moral principals. This theme of forgiveness is at the heart of the work and transports the ancient Greek myth into the modern, cosmopolitan world of Mozart... The world of Greek myth ...is one in which the gods control the fortunes of man and where fate is inescapable. The crux of Mozart and Varesco’s Idomeneo is that fate is not definite and that human reasoning, repentance, and self-sacrifice can bring about forgiveness.." More here.

Our production

Glyndebourne 1983 - it's a very traditional production by Trevor Nunn, with a cast of then leading singers.

Philip Langridge sings Idomeneo. Minimalist sets and staging, conducting by Bernard Haitink.

Australian Yvonne Kenny is Ilia, the Cretan princess who loves Idamante, the son due to be sacrificed, (played by Jerry Hadley).

That strong woman Electra

Mozart's operas glory in strong women and their voices. Electra is one of the strongest. In our production, Carol Vaness (right) is Electra. The Greek princess is currently in Crete (why?) and Ilia's rival for the prince. Defeated, in the context, she responds with some of the greatest music of the opera.

And here is a clip of the Electra mad scene with Carol Vaness in full flight.

It's a famous and almost impossible aria, requiring acting whilst singing impossible notes.

Yes, Joan Sutherland recorded it - here's the audio.

And there are more recordings from Electra's arias at Sutherland's Sydney performances of the opera here.

Full opera online?

Yes, there's a much praised La Scala production on YouTube here.

This production was in the season 2005/2006 when the world is going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. Daniel Harding debuts on the Milanese rostrum, after 19 years of Riccardo Muti’s conducting!

Martin Kettle reviews for Guardian here.

"Idomeneo is a tyro's opera: thrillingly ambitious, occasionally awkward and never easy to bring off. But it is a pivotal work. Nowhere else, with the exception of The Magic Flute, does Mozart give us a more tantalising glimpse of himself than here, in the life-and-death tensions between Idomeneo and his son Idamante. So strong is Mozart's identification with the latter than in some ways the opera might be called Idamante, or even Leopold and Wolfgang, for this is a story about a maturing prince who must prevail over his father or perish….

La Scala 2005, Idamante tells his father to do his duty and kill him

In a cast without either established megastars or serious weakness, Emma Bell's Elettra was rightly the most enthusiastically received, a reflection of Bell's developing range and command. Steve Davislim impressed as Idomeneo, and Camilla Tilling was an unusually interesting Ilia. But the admirable Monica Bacelli never let you forget that at the centre of this very special opera stands Idamante, and thus Mozart himself." (Played here, as it was originally, by a mezzo in a pants role.)

From Ancient to Modern: A Tasmanian Idomeneo

A production of Idomeneo by Lindy Hume for Vic Opera and Opera Australia was in Melbourne and Sydney last year. It has ended up in San Francisco, to rave reviews.

Much praised for it immersive scenery, it uses digital images filmed in Tasmania.

Here, from the the General Director of SFO, is a fascinatingly detailed account of the gathering and use of the images here, images of ocean, forest, islands and albatrosses