W. A. Mozart: Idomeneo, Re di Creta

After our performances of Mozart’s early opera seria we now turn to one of the central operas among his great works: Idomeneo (1781).

This opera provided the young composer with his breakthrough in Germany and confirmed his position as not merely a wunderkind but as a great, serious composer in what was then regarded the noblest of all genres: opera (from Beethoven onwards the symphony superseded opera as a composer’s manhood test).

Like the two previous operas, Mitridate and Lucio Silla, Idomeneo is a dramatic tale of illicit passion, relentless dilemmas, and a struggle between life and death. And just as in the third opera, Il Re Pastore, nature plays a very audible role. But Idomeneo is a decisive break with the old opera seria forms (you can read more about this in Jørgen Hansen's article under Lucio Silla) in the way its plot is laid out and in the way the orchestra is used. The pit does not only provide sensitive accompaniment for virtuoso arias; it chimes in for the recitatives, it evokes chaos, and ranges from the enormous might of the oceans to sublime harmony. And finally a real choir appears on stage with beautiful choruses and proper scenes; and ensembles supplant the beloved solos of the baroque period.

From Idomeneo it is a straight line to the Mozart operas we now regard as “the right ones”: Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. But Mozart would return to the opera seria once more: La Clemenza di Tito. This opera had its first performance on 5 September 1791, two months to the day before Mozart died. In his own list of his works he recorded it as an opera vera: a true opera, and it was certainly true that he was a pre-eminent user of the genre and possessed the courage to develop it in time with the demands of his day for psychological shading, great ensembles and long, through-composed sequences.

In the long run, however, the genre belonged too much to the baroque era and proved unable to live up to the new sensitivity of the rococo period. But before it was laid to rest Mozart created a cohesive series of operas that not only continue to arouse our curiosity but also repay our efforts with the strength of this unmistakeable genius.

There will be Danish subtitles in the concert hall.

The opera will then be recorded and released on CD in autumn 2005.