Fear of death - a bad advisor since time immemorial: King Idomeneo, whose fleet sinks into the waters of Crete shortly before returning home from the Trojan War, swears to the sea god Poseidon that if he survives, he will sacrifice the first human being he meets on the shore. But as fate – or rather the theater – would have it, this is of course his own son Idamante. To make matters worse, he has fallen in love with a Trojan prisoner, Ilia, which infuriates the Greek princess Elettra. Idomeneo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s perfect "drama for music", is one of a series of Greek war dramas retold according to the taste of the 18th century. The classical logic of tragedy, according to which the failure to act of those in power has fatal consequences for the general public and can only be atoned for by the downfall and destruction of the guilty, is redirected by a mandatory happy ending dictated by mysterious divine voices: Idomeneo steps back, but Poseidon’s sea monsters remain where they belong. Idamante and Ilia take over, peace for all and curtains please.
But does such a promise still hold true today? Director Bastian Kraft and the team from the successful production Rusalka stage a reflection on fathers’ fear of their own sons, traces of the archaic in European civilization, the rebellion of nature and the last generations. Idomeneo is one of the most exciting works of its time, with tone paintings bursting with imagination that compose masterful arias and choruses into larger scenic contexts. Under GMD Cornelius Meister’s baton, Mozart’s "Sturm und Drang" opera, composed at the age of 24, promises to be a true experience.
