Oxford and Cambridge Musical Club

Saturday 18^th October 2003 at 6.00 pm
in the United Reformed Church, Pond Square, Highgate

Concert No 1889

IDOMENEO
Opera seria in 3 acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
first performed in 1781 in Munich

Conducted by Alan Reddish

Cast (in order of appearance)

* Guest
Organiser: Jo Parton

The performance will be followed by

Everyone is invited.

Drinks provided.  Please bring a contribution of food.

Programme Note

Mozart was 24 when he received a commission from the Elector of Bavaria in Munich to write an opera seria for the forthcoming carnival season, in January 1781.  It was a critical period in his life.  Three years earlier he had set out with his mother on a lengthy concert tour, for the first time without his father, which  had taken them to Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim, and finally to Paris.  No longer a Wunderkind, he had not found the hoped-for regular post, and in July 1778 his mother died in Paris.  He could only return to Salzburg, to increasingly bad relations with the Archbishop for three more years.  He had not neglected his networking during this time however.  In Mannheim he had heard the famous court orchestra and befriended several members of it; they transferred to Munich in 1778, and were no doubt influential in his obtaining the Idomeneo commission.  (He had also fallen in love there with Aloysia Weber, to his father’s dismay; on his return journey through Munich she had rejected him). He had  dedicated 6 violin sonatas (KV 301-6), written during his journey, to the Elector’s wife, and  wrote an Aria (KV369) for the Elector’s mistress, Countess Baumgarten, a talented singer.  While in Paris he had undoubtedly been influenced by the new ideas about opera being discussed, particularly by Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide (produced there in 1774); perhaps he had already met the French original Idomenée on which his new libretto would be based, with a story resembling that of Iphigénie in the proposed sacrifice of a hero’s child.  So he was well prepared for the opportunities the commission provided, not least in the incalculable psychological effects of all these experiences, and of his relationship with his own father.

The opera seria form could be quite arid, with a story, often of classical mythology, told mainly in secco recitative, punctuated by arias commenting on the action, as vehicles for vocal display.  The new operatic theories sought to replace this by greater dramatic realism, and Mozart embraced them with unique insight and impact.  Some aspects of the traditional form remained, but they were extended in several ways: many of the recitatives had highly expressive string accompaniments rather than the simple harpsichord; the soloists combined in poignant ensembles – duet, trio and quartet showing their conflicting feelings; nine choruses showed the popular reactions of joy, terror, horror and final rejoicing with unequalled power; vivid orchestration made maximum use of the exceptional musicians available.  The French influence was also evident in the conclusion, an extended ballet after the final chorus.

As Mozart himself found it difficult to accommodate the lengthy libretto (by the Salzburg court chaplain Giambattista Varesco) without the opera being overextended, and there are variants to consider between different productions, all modern versions have to make choices.  For our concert purposes, almost all of the secco recitative is omitted, though most of the accompanied ones are retained, some arias are cut, others omitted, as is the ballet.  The story-telling is provided by a narration which should make the outlines of the action clear.  In the original version, the part of the king’s son Idamante was performed by a young castrato; here it is sung by a mezzo-soprano.  (There is an authentic later version for tenor, but the higher voice was Mozart’s original intention).

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The action takes place in ‘Sidon’ in Crete
(not the Sidon of the Bible, which is in the Lebanon)