Idomeneo, re di Creta
Content
- Performance information
- In a nutshell
- The story
- Timeline
- Interview: choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Idomeneo
- Background: A portrait of Chiharu Shiota
- Interview: conductor Laurence Cummings on Idomeneo
- Background: Mozart’s innovative ideas in Idomeneo
- Biographies artistic team
- Biographies singers
Performance information
Voorstellingsinformatie
In a nutshell
About Mozart’s Idomeneo, opera seria, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s staging.
In a nutshell
The shadow of history
The story of Idomeneo is set in Ancient Greece, in the world described by Homer (eighth century BC) in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The opera gives a compelling picture of the harrowing aftermath of the Trojan War, which lasted ten years and ended in victory for the Greeks. The Cretan king Idomeneo, who was on the Greek side, returns home victorious but then has to face the painful consequences of a promise he made to the sea god Neptune: he has to sacrifice the first person he encounters on dry land, and that happens to be his son Idamante. Meanwhile, love blossoms between the Cretan prince Idamante and the Trojan princess Ilia, notwithstanding the violent forces of history dominating their lives.
Mozart and opera seria
Mozart was only twenty-five when he composed Idomeneo. The work is in the opera seria tradition. This form of opera is typified by rigid structures and stereotypical characters, such as the noble hero, the virtuous heroine and the evil villain. The building blocks of opera seria are recitatives (singing in the style of ordinary speech) and arias (solo singing). The recitatives are used to drive the plot whereas the arias centre on the singer’s emotions and demonstrate their vocal virtuosity. There is hardly any opportunity for duets, trios or ensemble performances. Mozart, however, was able to tailor opera seria to suit his own style. He gives his characters a nuanced emotional life and he makes some surprising choices in the musical and dramatic build-up.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s staging
The director and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui sees Idomeneo as an apposite story for our times, in which the future of younger generations is determined by the decisions taken by their elders. In Idomeneo, he sees a king who will do whatever it takes to cling on to power. Dance is a constant presence in Cherkaoui’s production, revealing the links between the characters and the ghosts from the past that burden them. In Mozart’s version, the opera — in line with the conventions of opera seria — had to conclude with a ‘happy ending’ (lieto fine). However, the material on which Mozart based his opera, the French play by Crébillon père (1705) and the Greek tragedy that inspired it, was far from that. That is why Cherkaoui has decided instead to keep to the merciless rules that drive this tragedy in his final scene.
A world being built up and demolished
For his Idomeneo, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui invited prominent artists to give visual form to his theatrical interpretation with its emphasis on movement. The Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota created yarn sculptures to portray a world that is constantly being built up and demolished again. The red threads on the stage depict various situations and driving forces, such as the storm that besets Idomeneo’s ships and the sea monster that Idamante heroically defeats. The Japanese fashion designer Yuima Nakazato designed costumes that exude both belligerence and vulnerability.
The story
The Trojan War lasted ten years but has now ended in victory for the Greeks. The Greek allies return home with their Trojan prisoners. One of those allies is Idomeneo, King of Crete. His prisoners have already arrived in Crete, but there is no trace of the king.
Timeline
From ancient Crete to the opera houses of Europe: the journey of Idomeneo through time.
Timeline
1450-1200 BC
Heyday of the Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete. This is when the stories about Idomeneus are set.
Eighth century BC
In Homer’s epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, Idomeneus is described as the leader of the Cretans during the Trojan War. Unlike many of his fellow soldiers, he returns home safely after the war ends.
Fourth to fifth centuries AD
A commentary by Servius on Virgil’s Aeneid is the first mention of the promise Idomeneus made to the sea god Poseidon (Neptune) to sacrifice the first person he encountered.
1699
François Fénelon recounts the story of Idomeneus in his work Les Aventures de Télémaque. It turns Idomeneus’s story into a penetrating tale of leadership and guilt.
1705
The tragedy Idoménée by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon premieres. In this play, Idomeneus is confronted by his own failures when he kills his son out of jealousy for Érixène (Ilia).
1712
The opera Idoménée by André Campra, with a libretto by Antoine Danchet, has its premiere. In it, Idomeneus is torn between his oath and his own love for Ilione (Ilia). He is eventually forced by the gods to fulfil his promise.
1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg on 27 January as the son of the court violinist Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna Maria Pertl. It is clear from a young age that the boy is an exceptional musical prodigy.
1762-1766
Mozart travels with his father and sister to Munich and Vienna to perform at concerts, and undertakes a successful tour of Europe. He starts composing his first works and soon becomes interested in opera.
1780
Mozart is commissioned by Karl Theodor, the Elector of Bavaria, to compose an opera. He works on Idomeneo, re di Creta in partnership with the librettist Giambattista Varesco, who adds a lieto fine (happy end).
1781
Idomeneo, re di Creta premieres on 29 January in the Residenztheater in Munich. Mozart’s music is praised for its dramatic force and emotional depth. Later that year, a conflict erupts with his employer, the archbishop of Salzburg, that has been simmering for a while. Mozart moves to Vienna.
1782
Mozart marries Constanze Weber, despite his father’s disapproval. The Weber family support him during some turbulent years. 1782 is also the year in which his Die Entführung aus dem Serail has its premiere.
1786
Idomeneo is performed in concertante in Auersperg Palace in Vienna. For this performance, Mozart rewrites parts of the opera to enhance the musical drama. Also, the premiere takes place in Vienna of Le nozze di Figaro, the first of Mozart’s three collaborations with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.
1787
Mozart’s father Leopold dies. His death deprives Mozart of his most important source of support and guidance.
1791
Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito have their premieres. Mozart works on his Requiem, but dies before completing it, on 5 December, aged 35. The cause of death remains a mystery to this day.
1845
After a break of 64 years, a staged version of Idomeneo is performed again in Munich, leading to the rediscovery of the opera.
In conversation with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
The director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui sees Idomeneo as a tragedy relevant to our modern times about people in power who cling to their position at the expense of the younger generation.
In conversation with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
The director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui sees Idomeneo as a tragedy relevant to our modern times about people in power who cling to their position at the expense of the younger generation.
What made you want to direct Mozart’s Idomeneo?
“Idomeneo essentially tells the story of a king who refuses to step down, who wants to hold onto power even if that hurts his own son and damages the wellbeing of his people. When Idomeneo returns victorious from ten years of waging war against Troy, his fleet of ships runs into a storm. He only survives the storm by making a pact with the sea god Neptune. Idomeneo promises that he will sacrifice the first person he meets on land to the god. And because this is a tragedy, that person turns out to be his son Idamante. Basically, Idomeneo’s deal with Neptune prevents someone else from taking over his throne. I find this myth incredibly relevant to our world today, in which younger generations bear the burden of the political choices made in the past, and of leaders who refuse to give up power.”
How aware is Idomeneo of the consequences of the promise he made to Neptune?
“Of course, Idomeneo initially condemns his son to death without realising it when he makes this pact with Neptune. But in the course of the opera, Idomeneo continues to take decisions that hurt his son. One example is when he doesn’t recognise Idamante on his return to Crete and brusquely rejects him. Another is in the third act when he eventually consents to Idamante’s proposal to sacrifice himself. Idomeneo might not be deliberately sending his son to his death, but that is the consequence of his actions in seeking to hold onto his power and position. In Mozart’s opera, Idomeneo eventually does abdicate but he does so under pressure from Neptune, not out of his own free will.”
Mozart and his librettist based their opera on an earlier opera by the French composer André Campra, in which Idomeneo does not abdicate but instead kills his son in a fit of madness. In view of that, what do you think of the happy end Mozart gave his opera?
“I’d love to believe in that happy end, but the real world shows that it’s often not the case. These days, the young are fighting for their future and combating all kinds of oppression, but they are facing a cynical minority who don’t want to relinquish their privileges.”
“When I see Mozart’s version, it reminds me of Walt Disney, who sanitised fairy tales to such an extent that they lost their original meaning and power. Greek tragedy has its own rules and I wanted to respect them in my stage direction of Idomeneo.”
You have a real fascination for ancient tragedies. Why is that?
“It’s because they are so relevant. The stories are like mirrors of the conflicts that are tearing our modern world apart. We find it hard to imagine a monster like the one that threatens the kingdom of Crete in Idomeneo. And yet the wars, attacks and bombings we see in the world today are no less monstrous.”
“Tragedy invites us to put aside our judgement and to ask questions that go further than what is good or evil — disquieting questions that force us to reflect on what we would do if we were in the same position as these characters. That introduces a complexity that undermines the simplistic, black-and-white view of the world in which mankind is divided into the good guys and the bad guys. In fact, there is no clear moral order in tragedy, just a guiding principle of action and reaction: our deeds always have consequences, whether we like it or not. These stories highlight a profound sense of responsibility. They encourage us to reflect not only on our own acts but also on our place in the world.”
What role do the gods play in Idomeneo?
“These supernatural beings are metaphors that show us the existence of invisible, unwritten laws. If we violate these laws, we risk disaster, affecting not only ourselves but also the generations that come after us. The gods represent forces that determine the lives of people and nations. Music and dance help us to approach these invisible forces when words are not enough.”
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
“Tragedies are like mirrors of the conflicts that tear apart our contemporary world”
“In Idomeneo, I also see a conflict between two opposing principles. Neptune, the god of the sea, represents fluidity, the tsunami that overwhelms everything in its path and against which resistance is futile. He stands in contrast with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and reason, who Ilia calls upon at the start of the opera. That opposition between Neptune and Minerva is reminiscent of the antagonism between Apollo and Dionysus as described by Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy.”
The set design is by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. Why were you keen to work with her?
“When I discovered her work, I felt a deep resonance with key themes in our modern-day world. Chiharu uses a free, intuitive approach, working with materials that emphasise fragility and impermanence. Her work reflects the vulnerability of our reality, in which everything hangs by a thread. The same applies to the costumes designed by Yuima Nakazato. They are inspired by the armour of warriors, but at the same time they express extreme vulnerability.”
“Chiharu’s red threads symbolise the blood bonds connecting people and things. The characters in Idomeneo are bound to one another, often against their will. Ilia is in love with Idamante, the son of the king who helped destroy the people of Troy — her people. Elettra’s fate is inextricably linked to that of Idomeneo: if he abdicates, Idamante will become king, putting an end to her hopes of a life with Idamante. The relationships between the protagonists revolve around a tragic event, namely the destruction of Troy, which seems to draw a dividing line between the victors and the vanquished. Idomeneo, Ilia, Idamante and Elettra struggle with their problems while the distant ruins are still smouldering. This ‘past without end’ is expressed in various ways: the shadow that follows Idomeneo and the monster sent by Neptune to threaten the kingdom.”
“In this production, the visual universe is in constant flux, with images forming and then dissolving again. I think this sense of movement is already present in Mozart’s music. In the first act, Elettra sings and her voice then turns into a chorus of sailors caught in the storm. The walls of the royal palace shake and mutate into the raging sea, as if her voice has transformed the room itself. In Idomeneo, the world changes in line with the characters’ emotions. The music evokes a landscape that is in constant motion.”
Shiota explains that her work is about connecting her inner world with the outside world.
“Ultimately, that is also the essence of Mozart’s opera. Idomeneo tells the story of characters who try to break free of themselves. In the absence of his father, Prince Idamante liberates the Trojan prisoners and saves them from slavery. Mozart was twenty-five when he composed Idomeneo. Perhaps he was expressing a youthful desire to rise above the tragedy, end the cycle of violence and break free of the shackles of the past. Idamante acts out of love for Ilia. They choose to love one another, and in a way their love emerges against the current of history.”
“I admire people like Ilia who can change their point of view and move on. But we can’t ignore the past. The characters’ naivety is a weapon that could be turned against them. Ilia is the daughter of the Trojan king. Her name — derived from Ilion, the Greek name for Troy — reflects the destruction of her country. Idamante’s love is a balm to her, but she remains haunted by the ghosts of her vanquished people. The prince’s gesture in liberating the prisoners is not enough to put an end to the trauma.”
Original text: Simon Hatab, reworked by Louise Drijkoningen
English translation: Clare Wilkinson
The red thread
The visual artist Chiharu Shiota was responsible for the stage design for Idomeneo. Her dreamlike thread sculptures construct spaces and transform them into constant movement. Shiota uses yarn to express the visible and invisible connections between people, memories and places.
The red thread
The visual artist Chiharu Shiota was responsible for the stage design for Idomeneo. Her dreamlike thread sculptures construct spaces and transform them into constant movement. Shiota uses yarn to express the visible and invisible connections between people, memories and places.
In Japan, there is a traditional belief in the “red thread of fate” (akai ito), according to which every child is born with an invisible red thread emanating from the end of their little finger. This thread, which is connected to the heart, leads the child to a person who will play an important role in their life. The thread may become entangled or stretched, but fate will eventually make sure the two come together. This centuries-old belief has been a source of inspiration for Chiharu Shiota. Born in the Japanese prefecture of Osaka in 1972, her artistic journey began when she studied painting at Kyoto University.
Extensions of brush strokes
One day, Shiota dreamed that she was trapped in a black-and-white painting, covered completely by thick oil paint that made it difficult for her to breathe. This oppressive dream persuaded her to break free of the boundaries of traditional painting. During an exchange visit to the Canberra School of Art in Australia in 1994, she turned this dream into a performance she called Becoming Painting. In the performance, Shiota used her own body as a canvas by throwing red paint over herself. The aggressive gloss paint burned her skin and became stuck in her hair, which she eventually had to cut off a few weeks later.
After her stay in Australia, Shiota moved to Germany, where she studied in Hamburg, Braunschweig and Berlin. Her work evolved into large installations that she describes as “extensions of the brush strokes on a canvas”. In these installations, she wove hundreds of threads — often all in red, white or black — through a space. The threads cross one another and form networks that appear to imprison objects such as keys, books or dresses. Each colour has a symbolic meaning: red stands for blood, black for the cosmos and the night, and white for purity and mourning. When asked by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to do the stage design for Idomeneo, Shiota chose to use red as the colour for the sea. It is as if the Mediterranean has turned red with the blood of those who died in the Trojan War.
Memories, exile and uprooting
In her art, Shiota breathes new life into worn, everyday objects while building a symbolic bridge between the Earth and the heavens. In 2004, she created the installation Dialogue from DNA, in which two hundred pairs of shoes were connected to one single point in the centre of the space by threads. She asked people to donate shoes together with a short memory of a time when they wore the shoes: a first date, a wedding, a job interview. This idea came from a personal experience Shiota had, when she returned to Japan after a long absence and discovered that her old shoes no longer fitted because they had become misshapen over time.
Shiota’s works deal with the topics of memory, exile and uprooting. The threads connect the objects to their intimate history. As the title of one of her other works, Me Somewhere Else (2018), suggests, the threads connect us to one another and to the home countries we have lost. At the start of Idomeneo, the threads represent the chains holding the slaves. But a thread always has two ends. Shiota’s yarns not only connect the Trojan prisoners to the Cretans, holding them captive, but also the Cretans to Troy, the city they destroyed. The threads also connect the young people of Crete, including Idamante, to the past. These young people, who want to enjoy life and love and to forget the errors of their parents, have to deal with a legacy that is not of their choosing. In this way, Shiota’s work raises the question of who is truly free.
Hanging by a thread
In Idomeneo, the dancing and singing enter into a subtle dialogue with the sculptural universe Shiota has created. Her installations come to life. A metal coil suspended from above creates the effect of a gentle breeze during an aria in which Ilia confesses her feelings for Idamante. A multitude of threads represents the stormy sea in which Idomeneo’s fleet is caught. The hanging structures seem to violate the laws of nature and act as an omen of an impending catastrophe. The sea monster that appears in Idomeneo is based on Shiota’s previous work The Thread of Fate (2022).
Shiota’s art resonates in a world that is constantly balancing between growth and decline. In this red mist, figures are often reduced to their outlines — tragic, noble silhouettes on the liminal boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead. The same is true of Idomeneo, who cannot escape the consequences of his own choices. Does his son have to die? Or will Ilia and Idamante be able to live a happy life? The world hangs by a thread, capable of collapsing at any moment.
Text: Simon Hatab
English translation: Clare Wilkinson
Conductor Laurence Cummings on Idomeneo
In Idomeneo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote an opera that respected yet also challenged the conventions of the opera seria. The conductor Laurence Cummings talks about Mozart’s compositional masterpiece, the psychological depth of the characters and the artistic choices made in this production.
Conductor Laurence Cummings on Idomeneo
In Idomeneo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote an opera that respected yet also challenged the conventions of the opera seria. The conductor Laurence Cummings talks about Mozart’s compositional masterpiece, the psychological depth of the characters and the artistic choices made in this production.
“Mozart was only twenty-five when Idomeneo premiered,” says Cummings. “It never ceases to amaze me how he could figure out the complex inner emotions of his characters at such a young age. The orchestration is marvellous and he knows how to keep the audience engaged. You feel he had already reached a point where he had mastered everything you need to compose an opera.”
The opera is about King Idomeneo, whom the gods save from a shipwreck, albeit at a high price: he must sacrifice the first person he meets — which turns out to be his own son, Idamante. Cummings says the father-son relationship in the opera must be seen in the context of Mozart’s own experiences. “A lot has been written about Mozart’s relationship with his father Leopold. His own father-son relationship undoubtedly provided inspiration for the complex dynamics between Idomeneo and Idamante.”
Pushing boundaries
Idomeneo is firmly embedded in the opera seria tradition with its strict conventions. An opera seria is usually based on a mythological or historical tale and is divided into three acts. At the heart of the opera seria is the solo voice. Duets, trios and other vocal ensembles — elements that Mozart would later develop to perfection — were only used sporadically. Instead, the opera alternated between recitatives — spoken passages that drive the plot forward — and arias — solo numbers in which the characters express their emotions and the singers demonstrate their virtuosity. Mozart was able to adapt this rigid form to suit his own purposes and to introduce innovative aspects. “Mozart breaks the rules and plays with our expectations,” explains Cummings. “His treatment of the transitions in particular is very distinctive. You never feel stuck in a certain structure.”
A good example is the start of the third act. “The second act ends with everyone in a panic about the attack by the monster. You expect Mozart will pick up where he left off in the third act, but instead he opens that act with Ilia alone in nature in a reflective mood. It's true that this aria fits well with the tradition of the opera seria in terms of its form, but its position in combination with its simplicity makes Mozart’s interpretation of the convention incredibly innovative. While the aria’s pastoral notes sound, the tension continues to simmer in the background.”
“My fantastic assistant William Cole pointed out to me that Idomeneo was composed only thirty years after Handel’s great oratorio Jephtha, which also tells the story of a father who has to sacrifice his child to a god. Mozart builds on the theatrical world that Handel had mastered and develops it further to create the last great example of an opera seria.”
The influence of the Mannheim School
An important source of inspiration for Mozart in Idomeneo was the Mannheim School, which was known for its innovative, detailed orchestrations and theatrical effects. “The influence of the Mannheim School is really clear in the opera’s dynamic contrasts and colourful orchestrations,” explains Cummings. “Mozart plays with crescendos and decrescendos, something that was new in his day, and he uses a range of instruments to make the music sound rich and expressive.” A striking example is the passage in which we hear La Voce, the voice of Neptune. “Mozart wrote this passage for an unusual combination of two horns and three trombones. The trombones were added purely for this section. In La Voce’s part, each sentence is followed by a short pause, keeping the listeners constantly on the edge of their seats. It’s a brilliant use of musical rhetoric, in which each pause increases the tension.”
The supernatural in the music
The supernatural plays a big role in Idomeneo, and Mozart’s music impresses in how it brings this dimension to life. “The orchestration of the monster is an excellent example,” says Cummings. “It’s as if Mozart has created a Jackson Pollock painting: he chucks musical paint at the canvas, which spatters everywhere, and follows that with quieter passages. The violins have a part here that is almost impossible to play, purely for the effect. It is overwhelming and brilliant.” This use of music to make you sense what cannot be seen underlines the theatrical power of Idomeneo. “The way he manages to convey fear and panic through the choral music is also astounding. The chorus seems to represent the heartbeat of the people, speeding up as the threat increases.”
Complex characters with depth
According to Cummings, one of Mozart’s biggest achievements is the psychological depth he imbues his characters with. “At first glance, Ilia and Elettra seem to fit the heroine and villain archetypes, but nothing could be further from the truth. Ilia is a young woman who has lost everything — her father, her people, her country — and lives in a world where people are unbelievably awful to one another. Yet she develops feelings for Idamante, the son of her enemy. She is constantly trying to walk a line between her sense of duty and her burgeoning love.”
Elettra seems at first to be the stereotypical evil woman, but her music reveals a more complex character. “In her aria in the second act, she thinks everything will go her way and she hopes for a life with love; that gives us a glimpse of her true self. She is damaged and bears the burden of her family’s past. This intergenerational trauma makes her actions understandable — she is trying to armour herself against pain. But Mozart also shows us what happens when she sheds her armour. That makes her human and tragic.”
The chorus as a dramatic instrument
The chorus plays a prominent role alongside the soloists in Idomeneo. “The chorus performs various functions, as is customary in the opera seria tradition,” explains Cummings. “But in Idomeneo Mozart takes the chorus to another level. The chorus paints the scenes and magnifies the dramatic impact.” One good example is a passage in the third act. Urged by the high priest, Idomeneo has just admitted what he is required to do by the promise he made to Neptune, namely sacrifice his own son. “The chorus mourns this awful fate with music that makes you feel you have just stepped inside a church. It is almost as if you are listening to Mozart’s Requiem.”
Artistic choices
Many choices have to be made when performing Idomeneo today. “Mozart wrote various versions of the opera, depending on who would be performing it. You could virtually fill two evenings of music with all the material that was composed for Idomeneo. For our production, we decided to keep the three-act structure, which Mozart builds up so effectively, and have two intervals between the acts.” There are choices to be made in the casting and instruments too. “We decided to have a mezzo-soprano sing Idamante — rather than a countertenor or tenor — and use a harpsichord rather than a fortepiano for the continuo part.” One striking choice was the decision to leave out the ballet at the end of the opera. “Ballet was an important part of an opera in Mozart’s day, but for a modern-day audience, we wanted to keep the story compact and enthralling. Once the story has ended, you feel you really have reached the finish. Anyway, dance occupies a central position throughout the performance in this production.”
A timeless masterpiece
In Idomeneo, Mozart proved his brilliance as a composer and theatre-maker. “He knew his audiences and knew exactly how to make an impact on them,” concludes Cummings. “This opera is a work that continues to fascinate in all its emotional complexity and theatrical grandeur.”
Text: Jasmijn van Wijnen
English translation: Clare Wilkinson
Mozart’s innovative ideas in Idomeneo
Mozart himself considered Idomeneo to be one of his best operas, yet it has never become a fixture in the repertoire. Audiences found the baroque mythological story rather old-fashioned, even if the score reaped praise from experts from the very start, as Mozart had experimented freely within the boundaries set by the conventions of opera seria.
Mozart’s innovative ideas in Idomeneo
Mozart himself considered Idomeneo to be one of his best operas, yet it has never become a fixture in the repertoire. Audiences found the baroque mythological story rather old-fashioned, even if the score reaped praise from experts from the very start, as Mozart had experimented freely within the boundaries set by the conventions of opera seria.
The rulers in Mozart’s operas always wrestle with their feelings: in their position of supreme moral authority, their ideology comes into conflict with their emotional desires. Idomeneo is no exception in this respect. Mozart’s main focus in this opera is on the psychological effects of the tragic circumstances in which the characters find themselves — largely as a result of their own deeds. This focus on inner conflicts is sometimes at the expense of the development of the action, as is evident from the many edits that Mozart made to Giambattista Varesco’s libretto, both during and after the composition process.
The theme of Idomeneo, a story full of misfortune and misery, gave Mozart the opportunity to present his progressive, humane views on emotion and affliction. He used music to express the suffering — both of individuals and the collective suffering of the people. While he remained faithful to the formal structure of the opera seria, with recitatives and arias, he broke with the genre’s traditional, limited characterisations. Mozart introduced the ‘actively suffering person’ as a realistic counterpart to the emotionally impotent opera seria hero. In Idomeneo, he started a musical revolution of the emotions.
Idamante and Ilia – the new people
Mozart emphasises this inner turmoil in a powerful orchestral recitative full of dramatic tension. Whereas a traditional opera seria would probably follow this up with a calming or revengeful aria, Mozart makes a different choice. In Ilia’s aria, all her conflicting emotions come together and magnify one another. The aria does not end with a clear-cut finish but instead lets the emotions bubble restlessly onto the next recitative. When Idamante appears, Ilia tries to hide her feelings out of loyalty to her Trojan roots.
Mozart emphasises this inner turmoil in a powerful orchestral recitative full of dramatic tension. Whereas a traditional opera seria would probably follow this up with a calming or revengeful aria, Mozart makes a different choice. In Ilia’s aria, all her conflicting emotions come together and magnify one another. The aria does not end with a clear-cut finish but instead lets the emotions bubble restlessly onto the next recitative. When Idamante appears, Ilia tries to hide her feelings out of loyalty to her Trojan roots.
Idamante, the son of the warmongering king, wants to make peace with the enemy. He decides to liberate the Trojan prisoners — with the exception of Ilia, who must stay on Crete. Idamante too is overcome by his feelings of tender love for Ilia, the enemy princess. Mozart portrays Ilia and Idamante as a new kind of couple, entirely in keeping with the ideals of the Enlightenment. Their life choices and their emotions are the result of free will and autonomy rather than being determined by their background, or by divine forces or tragic fate. Their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the other or to show mercy is not a reflection of weakness but driven by their inner strength and freedom. With these modern, peace-loving characters, Mozart offers a counterweight to the traditional opera seria roles, such as the tragic ruler (Idomeneo) and the rejected woman governed by her emotions (Elettra).
Elettra, the ‘bad’ princess
Elettra, the daughter of King Agamemnon and sister of Orestes, bears the heavy burden of a cursed family history that has embittered her tortured heart. In her first aria, she calls on the “Furies from hell” to spur on her hatred of her rival Ilia and her desire for revenge. In Idomeneo, Elettra is an example of the stereotypical opera seria role of the rejected woman of high birth who desperately tries to force a man to love her, using threats. Her whole attitude shrieks, “love me or die!” Possessed by the Furies, Elettra’s inner turmoil gives her a dark, intense energy, fuelled further by a fear she will fail in her endeavour.
However, Agamemnon’s imperious daughter also reveals her gentle, friendly, warm side occasionally. The tragic grandeur of her character is on display mainly at moments when she is defined entirely by the ancient myth. An example is her baroque revenge aria, with forceful outbursts from the orchestra. However, Mozart was not only interested in her anger and aggression. He explores Elettra’s psychological drives and shows she is indeed capable of love. Her gentle aria on love in the second act, accompanied only by the strings, shows a very different side to her character. Mozart’s view of people is clear from the way he treats Elettra — as a human being who has just as much right to happiness as the more peaceful and stable characters Idamante and Ilia.
Idomeneo – the suffering father
For the character of Idomeneo, Mozart focuses on two aspects: the suffering father and the ageing king who tries to deny the real situation. He lets us form our own judgement while giving as complete and nuanced as possible a picture of Idomeneo’s personality and his motivation. Idomeneo is not a superficial marionette in the opera seria tradition. Mozart shows us the tragic inner world of the military leader, his human side. In Mozart’s opera, it is not only the young, modern characters who have deep feelings. All his characters, including Idomeneo, share in Mozart’s musical revolution of the emotions.
The emotions of the crowd
Idomeneo is not just about the fate of the heroic main protagonists but also about that of the suffering people. Mozart shows that the arrogance and egocentric behaviour of the leaders have consequences for society as a whole. He draws a sharp contrast between the problems of the little people and the self-absorption of the powerful. Mozart underlines a simple but important truth: the people – those who have no power – suffer the most from the conflicts of their leaders and their gods. What the elite often prefer not to acknowledge due to their overestimation of themselves is made clear by Mozart in nearly all of the nine chorus passages: in the final analysis, the people are a group of individual human beings.
Moving images
For the premiere in Munich, Mozart composed thirty-one numbers in addition to the many recitatives with accompaniment. After he made twelve cuts, seven scenes and twenty-eight numbers remained. Even so, Idomeneo feels very cohesive in musical terms. Mozart created fluid transitions to keep the opera dynamic. He kept to the form of the opera seria, with its sequence of separate numbers, but linked them together subtly.
He created small transitions, referred back to earlier passages and let arias and recitatives merge almost seamlessly into one another. In this way, he is able to create the impression even in a traditional opera seria of a continuous flow of music — as if he has set static images in motion.
The birth of the musical drama
With his ensemble pieces, Mozart took a step towards the modern music drama. The opera seria genre did not allow genuine musical interaction between the characters, as the focus was on monologues revealing their inner thoughts and feelings. However, in certain passages, Mozart expresses the action through an ensemble number. His biggest achievement in this respect is the quartet in the third act. He had effectively composed the first major ensemble number in opera history about suffering, within the framework of the opera seria: four completely different characters share the same pain and sing together: “Soffrir, soffrir più non si può?” (Can one suffer any more?). This quartet is not only impressive both musically and dramatically, it is also one of the most remarkable contributions to the genre of the opera seria and a high point in Mozart’s ‘middle period’.
From reservoir to repertoire
Musically, Idomeneo is Mozart’s most ‘open’ opera. It is an explosion of inspiration, full of deep musical ideas. It is a kind of laboratory in which Mozart developed his operatic style, a collection of creative elements crying out for further elaboration and new theatrical combinations. Mozart recognised this too. When he realised Idomeneo was not going to be a major success, he used it as a source of inspiration for his later Viennese operas. Die Zauberflöte, for example, could never have existed without Idomeneo. There are even similarities between the characters, although often with a playful, ironic twist. Thus Elettra connects to the Queen of the Night, Ilia to Pamina, Idamante to Tamino and Idomeneo to Sarastro.
Based on a text by Attila Csampai, reworked by Jasmijn van Wijnen
English translation: Clare Wilkinson
Main sponsor Dutch National Opera & Ballet
