Word: idomeneo
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Noble flop or neglected masterpiece? The question has followed Mozart's opera Idomeneo almost since its birth in 1781. Last week in Chicago the Lyric Opera voted for masterpiece, shoring up its case with the kind of virtuoso singing and playing that has made the company synonymous with excellence...
...curse upon Idomeneo was not easy to lift. Its setting is ancient Crete, where King Idomeneo and his gang are squirming under the rule of a choleric god. Stormbound at sea while returning from the Trojan War, Idomeneo has begged Neptune for deliverance. In return, he will sacrifice the first person he encounters on shore. Straining the long arm of coincidence, Idomeneo steps on land-and meets his son Idamante. Such subject matter is a problem for 20th century audiences, but not the only one. Idomeneo is written in the style of opera seria, the stilted, ritualistic 18th century Italian...
...concert opened with the Overture to Mozart's opera Idomeneo. Although some inaccurate tuning and rickety entrances marred the performance of the rarely-heard work, the conductor and the orchestra paid careful attention to the shadings and contrasts in volume that contribute to the shaping of the work...
...Mozart: Idomeneo (Philips). Like most opera seria, this one depends on gods, a sea monster, women pretending to be men and an unusual ability on the part of the audience to take the whole thing seriously. But the music is Mozart at his best, requiring only a great conductor and a great cast to do it justice. It gets just that. Colin Davis fans the music to a fierce, steady glow. Highpoints: George Shirley's rocketlike traversal of Fuor del mar-a crippling catalogue of coloratura devices -and Elettra's two arias sung by Pauline Tinsley, a British...
...grim Carl Orff assault which soprano Donna Newman made on the sacred coloratura aria Laudate Dominum: all the notes were there, too many of them flat, all of them invested with a Donizettian apocalyptic bravura, Mozart may have been only one year away from great operatic achievement in Idomeneo, but at the moment he was still close by the altar. Miss Curtis seemed intimidated by this Salome-like display but still bettered her prosaic performance in the Schutz. The two male soloists sang adequately, Robert Gartside's illustrative facial antics notwithstanding. I wished for vastly superior pronunciation from everyone concerned...