Idomeneo

A storm rages off Crete and forces King Idomeneo, returning from the Trojan War, to make a disastrous promise to Neptune: If the angry God would allow him to reach the land safely, he would sacrifice to him the first person he would meet. Arriving at the beach, Idomeneo meets his son Idamante, of all people. But the irreconcilable world of gods seems to insist on fulfilling the promise.

The storm that Mozart's music so vividly conjures up rages not only outdoors, but also in all figures of the opera. Whether father and son, whether the two foreign king daughters Ilia and Elettra, who hope for better days after the traumatizing war — they are all helplessly at the mercy of natural and emotional forces, which the music of 25-year-old Mozart vividly portrays. This is how Idomeneo, who completely renewed the genre of opera seria that was thought dead, opens the series of Mozart operas of maturity. Created in 1781 as a work commissioned by the excellent ensemble of the Munich Residence Theatre, he was able to draw on the full musical for his most extensive and ambitious work. Mozart's hope of finding a new job and being able to leave Salzburg with this piece as a business card was, of course, not fulfilled. But it was precisely this ambition that required an exceptional score: with sophisticated arias, differentiated role portraits, a virtuoso orchestral part and some major choral scenes, which are among the most impressive in Mozart's work.