Programs · Episode

MOZART: Idomeneo

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, April 14, 2018 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

Idomeneo is a masterpiece that’s only beginning to gain its rightful place in Mozart’s canon.  The opera may have an outlandish plot, but it’s also blessed with some of Mozart’s most beautiful music and a troupe of opera’s most touchingly human characters. On At the Opera, we'll hear the best from the score, in two very different recordings.  One is an acclaimed, "period instrument" release led by René Jacobs with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.  The other takes the "modern" approach to the opera, with James Levine leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and a cast including Placido Domingo and Cecilia Bartoli.

Featured Recordings:

René Jacobs, conductor
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, RIAS Chamber Choir
(Harmonia Mundi 902036)
CAST: Richard Croft (Idomeneo); Bernarda Fink (Idamante); Sunhae Im (Ilia); Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Elettra); Kenneth Tarver (Arbace); Nicolas Rivenq (High Priest); Luca Tittoto (The Voice)

James Levine, conductor
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
(DG 447737)
CAST: Placido Domingo (Idomeneo); Cecilia Bartoli (Idamante); Heidi Grant Murphy (Ilia); Carol Vaness (Elettra); Thomas Hampson (Arbace); Frank Lopardo (High Priest); Bryn Terfel (The Voice)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

Like all great composers, Mozart wrote music that amazes us in ways that are almost impossible to describe — with its remarkable depth, its surprising complexity and its sheer beauty.

In fact, Mozart's seemingly effortless brilliance can make us forget that he was also one of music's greatest innovators, especially when it comes to opera.

Mozart's late operas, including Don Giovanni, combined intense drama, breezy comedy and profound insights, in a way that had never been heard before, using musical forms and techniques that were unprecedented. But strangely, it may be an earlier, more traditional drama that first revealed Mozart's unique gift for taking the familiar, and making it extraordinary.

Late in 1780, Mozart was hard at work on a brand new opera that could easily have gone out of style before it was even finished. Idomeneo was conceived as an opera seria, a highly-stylized musical recipe that had been the "in thing" with European aristocrats for decades. Still, by the time the Elector of Bavaria asked Mozart for Idomeneo, the fashion was clearly fading.

But Mozart was 24 years old, at the top of his game, and undaunted by current trends. If the elector wanted an opera seria, Mozart would write one. Using a traditional libretto based on classical myth, Mozart produced a score that surpassed the very genre it was rooted in.

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.

The opera was first heard in Munich, in 1781. That premiere was a success, but the production lasted only a short time, and the opera had only one other performance in Mozart's lifetime — a concert version, in Vienna, in 1786.

After that, Idomeneo was caught in a kind of time-warp: Its formal, 18th-century style didn't appeal to the burgeoning Romantic movement of the 19th century. When it was performed, it was often in souped-up arrangements, including one by Richard Strauss. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that the opera was widely accepted in its original form. Since then, it has been firmly planted in the standard repertoire.

On At the Opera, host Lisa Simeone presents the finest moments from Mozart's trendsetting, and trend-breaking Idomeneo in in two very different recordings. One is an acclaimed, "period instrument" recording led by René Jacobs with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. The other takes the "modern" approach to the opera, with James Levine leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and a cast including Placido Domingo and Cecilia Bartoli.

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