Word: idomeneo
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...little 600-seat opera house at Glyndebourne (rhymes with fine horn) was almost filled. Conductor Fritz Busch started the overture, and the curtain went up on the first professional British production of the rarely performed Idomeneo. The opera is based on a Greek legend of the King of Crete who is nearly trapped into sacrificing his son to the sea god Poseidon in exchange for his own safety. Though Idomeneo is unwieldy on the stage, members of the orchestra and cast (representing the U.S., England, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Australia) put on a first-rate show, glittering with classic fidelity...
...experimented with concert opera before-Orfeo ed Euridice two years ago (TIME, March 14, 1949) and Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio last season. Abduction was such a hit that he decided to repeat it this season and add two more Mozart operas, Cost Fan Tutte and Idomeneo. To Scherman, all were "particularly suited" for concert versions because "stagewise they are big bores...
Altogether, Landon has recorded 25 Haydn symphonies, six Masses, Haydn's most famed oratorio, The Creation, and some chamber works, with Mozart's neglected opera Idomeneo thrown in for good measure. With profits from record sales, the society has published the first of 63 volumes of Haydn's collected works. Landon (and seven other stockholders) can now survey a corporation which will gross $150,000 this year, numbers some of the world's outstanding Haydn authorities (including Denmark's Jens Peter Larsen, Boston's Karl Geiringer) on its advisory board. Nonetheless, the society...
...Mozart: Idomeneo, Rè di Creta (soloists and chorus of the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Meinhard von Zallinger conducting; the Haydn Society, 8 sides LP). The 13th of his 22 theater works, Idomeneo was Mozart's favorite-if no one else's; it has only had one U.S. production, at the Berkshire Music Center (TIME, Aug. 18, 1947). Although there is much to marvel at, most listeners will find Idomeneo loaded with tiresome recitative and lacking in the sparkle of Don Giovanni or The Marriage of Figaro. Performance and recording: good...
...encouragement of "Idomeneo" leaves one wondering where Mr. Goldovsky will head after his January 18 "Don Giovanni," the last scheduled production of the series. He and his troupe ought now to struggle for the facilities to do more frequent productions, watching the quality all the while. With this first success in Opera Seria (in which, incidentally, the English translation went much better than it did in their recent Opera Buffa success, "Figaro") they might try next "La Clemenza di Tito," another Mozart work in the form and the last opera he wrote. Perhaps they might experiment with Berlioz, Giordano...