Idomeneo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Idomeneo

Sep 28 - Oct 20

This Production is in the past

The opera that announced the young Mozart’s genius to the world returns to the Met stage, with acclaimed maestro Manfred Honeck making a notable company debut on the podium. A distinguished cast of leading Mozarteans comes together to bring the moving drama and dazzling arias to life, with tenor Michael Spyres in the title role of the ancient Cretan king, alongside mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey as the noble prince Idamante and soprano Ying Fang as his conflicted beloved, Ilia. Soprano Federica Lombardi is the jealous Elettra, who loses her senses in a mad scene of virtuosic rage.

Revival a gift of Barbara Augusta Teichert

Read Synopsis Read Program

Sung In

Italian

Met Titles In

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Italian

Estimated Run Time

3 hrs 20 mins

  • House Opens

  • Acts I & II

    110 mins

  • Intermission

    30 mins

  • Act III

    60 mins

  • Opera Ends

Cast

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TBA

Performing

Performed

All Dates

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Idomeneo

World premiere: Court Theater (now the Cuvilliés Theater), Munich, 1781. Like many stories from Greek myth, Idomeneo explores the motivations and emotions of humans whose fates seem beyond their own control. The opera casts these issues within the framework of the opera seria genre, a stylized format popular in the 18th century that is characterized by a succession of arias and recitatives and a cast of noble characters. Long neglected along with other works of this era, Idomeneo now holds a firm place in the repertoire as the first of Mozart’s operatic masterpieces.

Creators

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) was the son of a Salzburg court musician who exhibited him as a musical prodigy throughout Europe. His achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. Giovanni Battista Varesco (1735–1805) was a poet and the court chaplain of the Principality of Salzburg, Mozart’s place of employment at the time of Idomeneo.

Production

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Set and Costume Designer

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Lighting Designer

Gil Wechsler

Headshot of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Setting

Idomeneo

The opera is set on the island of Crete in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The tales of this time have provided fertile grounds for creators of opera, from Monteverdi (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, 1640) to Berlioz (Les Troyens, 1863), to Richard Strauss (Die Ägyptische Helena, 1928), to Martin David Levy (Mourning Becomes Electra, 1967). The era is evocative, reflecting the confusion of a post-traumatic historical moment.

Music

Despite the opera’s somewhat formulaic structure, the diversity of vocal solos and ensembles in Idomeneo is astounding. Mozart offers one of the first operatic mad scenes with Elettra’s demented "D’Oreste, d’Ajace," and the Act III quartet, “Andrò, ramingo e solo,” is as insightful and sophisticated as any example in opera. The choral writing, likewise, is especially refined, with the music woven into the action in an unprecedented manner.

Medea