- Mozart’s Idomeneo, re di Creta (Idomeneo, King of Crete), premiered in Munich in 1781.1
- Mozart wrote the opera’s orchestral parts for the famously virtuosic Mannheim orchestra, which was visitng Munich at the time of the opera’s premiere.2
- The opera is based on a French libretto by Antoine Danchet, Idomenée, adapted by Giovanni Battista Varesco.3
- Story: set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the opera follows the tragic Greek commander Idomeneus. In return for protection from Neptune, Idomeneo must sacrifice whoever he first meets upon disembarking from his dangerous voyage: the victim turns out to be his son, Idamantes.4
- The overture:
- Listen for: the opening rushing string figures possibly depict the turbulent sea storm through which Idomeneo must travel.5
- The overture also frequently features a little fast falling-scale wind motif which will recur at key points throughout the opera. The motif occurs most noticeably and frequently in the diminuendo during the last measures of the overture.6
- This is known as the “Idamantes” or “Sacrifice” motif. Idomeneo is one of the first operas to use recurring themes or motifs associated with characters and ideas. (Want to know more? Check out this essay.)
Sources
- Cliff Eisen, and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 19, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233.
- Ibid.
- Julian Rushton, “Idomeneo, re di Creta,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed November 26, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000902313.
- Ibid.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Idomeneo, ed. Gary Kahn et al. (Surrey, UK: Overture Publishing, 2010), 19.
- Rushton, “Idomeneo, re di Creta,” Grove Music Online.
Cut IDs
42423