Mozart nel Mediterraneo di oggi

Idomeneo, re di Creta di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Coproduzione con il Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, The Royal Danish Opera e Canadian Opera Company

Una potente presa di posizione contro le guerre concepita da Robert Carsen

Direzione musicale di Ivor Bolton

23 febbraio, 19:00: live broadcast su European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

L'opera sarà trasmessa su Mezzo in data da definire e pubblicata in DVD in coproduzione François Roussillon et Associés

IDOMENEO, BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Co-production with Teatro dell'Opera di Roma,

The Royal Danish Opera & Canadian Opera Company

A VERY POWERFUL ANTI-WAR STATEMENT CONCEIVED BY ROBERT CARSEN

MUSICAL DIRECTION BY IVOR BOLTON

23 February, 7 pm: live broadcast on European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

The opera will be broadcast on Mezzo (undated)

and edited on DVD in co-production François Roussillon et Associés

Idomeneo, re di Creta

Opera seria in three acts, KV 366

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Libretto by Giovanni Battista Varesco, based upon the play Idoménée (1712) by Antoine Danchet, after the play of the same name (1705) by Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon

Premiered at the Residenztheater of Munich, on 29 January 1781
Premiered at the Teatro Real on 17 July 2008

Version revised by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered at the Palais Auersperg of Vienna on 10 March 1786

New production by the Teatro Real, in co-production with the Canadian Opera Company of Toronto and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma

Principal Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real

Musical director:Ivor Bolton
Stage director:Robert Carsen
Set designer:Robert Carsen
Luis F. Carvalho
Lighting designer:Robert Carsen
Peter van Praet
Costume designer:Luis F. Carvalho
Choreographer:Marco Berriel
Video Director:Will Duke
Chorus Master:Andrés Máspero

Idomeneo:Eric Cutler (Feb. 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 · Mar. 1) / Jeremy Ovenden (Feb. 20, 26, 28)
Idamante:David Portillo (Feb. 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 · Mar. 1) / Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani (Feb. 20, 26, 28)
Ilia:Anett Fritsch (Feb. 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 · Mar. 1) / Sabina Puértolas (Feb. 20, 26, 28)
Elettra:Eleonora Buratto (Feb. 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 · Mar. 1) / Hulkar Sabirova (Feb. 20, 26, 28)
Arbace:Benjamin Hulett (Feb. 19, 21, 23, 25, 27 · Mar. 1) / Krystian Adam (Feb. 20, 26, 28)
High Priest of Neptune:Oliver Johnston
The voice of Neptune:Alexander Tsymbalyuk

Performance Dates

19 FEB (T) 19:00h
Turn Première
20 FEB (W) 19:00h
Turn Z
21 FEB (T) 19:00h
Turn B
23 FEB (S) 19:00h
Turn G
25 FEB (M) 19:00h
Turn A
26 FEB (T) 19:00h
Turn D
27 FEB (W) 19:00h
Turn C
28 FEB (T) 19:00h
Turn H
1 MAR (F) 19:00h
Turn F

IDOMENEO, BY ROBERT CARSEN

A VERY POWERFUL ANTI-WAR STATEMENT

Robert Carsen situates the action of Idomeneo in today’s world on a Greek island in the Mediterranean. A strong army and displaced refugee prisoners evoke a modern version of the long Homeric war between the Trojans and the Greeks. When the action begins, the Trojans are a defeated and displaced people, refugee prisoners of the Greeks on Crete. Idamante, son of the victorious general Idomeneo frees the conquered prisoners and attempts to unite the two enemies. But it seems to me that neither side wants that: the nationalistic victorious Greeks do not want foreigners on their soil, whereas the defeated Trojans cannot trust their lifelong enemy. In our production we are referencing what unfortunately we are seeing more and more in the world: war, displacement, nationalism and hatred. To help understand the effect these negative forces have on people we are using a large crowd (100 actors will join the Teatro Real chorus of 50).Idomeneo is Mozart’s choral masterpiece and the music and dramatic situations he composed for the chorus are among his most extraordinary in terms of power and emotion. These crowds of people, acting and reacting with one voice, give even greater contour to the conflicts and passions of the individual characters.

The love story of the two women protagonists, Ilia and Elletra, both in love with Idamante, is set against the context of war, in which Elettra represents the victors, and Ilia, the defeated. Apart from the obvious parallels to the Romeo and Juliet theme – two young lovers who come from enemy sides – there is also an opposition of ideologies. Ilia is terribly conflicted: in love with the son of the enemy king, she wishes for peace and is prepared to forgive the enemy, but also feels that if she does so she will be betraying her dead father Priam as well as the Trojan people. Elletra feels that Idamante has betrayed her and his people by falling in loving with the enemy Ilia. Neither Ilia nor Elettra have any home or family: they have lost everything and find themselves in similar circumstances, even if they are from opposite sides. Elettra is a young passionate woman looking for love, striving to belong and to be at peace, but circumstances create a different destiny for her. Overall, there is a terrible feeling of displacement. It is as though, somehow, all the characters have lost their points of reference and are guided by a compass broken by war and grief. No one knows which way to turn. Mozart writes highly emotional, passionate and profoundly psychological music for all four of the principal characters. And then further combines and contrasts their passions and desires in complex magnificent duets, trios and quartets.

Parallel to the story of love, there is also an important conflict between father and son, between two generations and two ways of understanding the world. Can this be associated with Mozart’s own life? Certainly it can be argued that Mozart’s own conflicts with his father must have been a factor that attracted him to this libretto. But there is much more to it than that, and above all an enormous ideological and generational divide between what the father and the son believe is right. Idamante frees the Trojan prisoners at the beginning of the opera, calling for generosity and integration for the enemy. Most of the Greeks, including Elettra and Idomeneo, think this is wrong, and Idomeneo later even attempts to justify Neptune’s punishment of his son as that of a God opposed to Idamante’s actions. This divide reflects an old vs new way of thinking: “Greece belongs to the Greeks” is the unchanging thinking as represented by Idomeneo and Ellectra, whereas Idamante and Ilia are hoping for a new world without war, where love and forgiveness will replace hatred and punishment. In fact we see the opera Idomeneo as a very powerful anti-war statement, with a conclusion built on hope. At the end of the opera, when the voice of Neptune declares that love has won, the voice further states that Idomeneo shall cease to be King and that Idamante shall rule in his place. Here is born the possibility that a new generation, one which embraces love and peace, might change the world from being driven by power, war and destruction. Can we humans ever stop making the same mistakes? I firmly believe that Mozart’s Idomeneo is one of the most important works ever written, a warning, a challenge and a beacon since it was written. If only we could listen, if only love could win…

SYNOPSIS OF IDOMENEO

BY ROBERT CARSEN

Background

After ten long years of the Trojan war, Idomeneo finally returns home victorious. Some of his forces have already returned and brought back Trojan prisoners, among them Ilia, daughter of the dead King Priam.

Upon his return from the war, Agamemnon, another victorious Greek King, was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Elettra’s brother Orestes avenged his father’s death by killing both his mother and her lover. Elettra, an orphan like Ilia, has taken refuge in Crete, where she has fallen in love withIdomeneo’s son Idamante, who has been ruling Crete in his father’s absence…

Act I

Ilia grieves for her father Priam and her brothers, all killed during the Trojan war. Brought to Crete together with other Trojan prisoners of war, Ilia is torn between her secret love for the enemy king’s son Idamante and her feelings of loyalty to her people. Idamante tells Ilia that he loves her. He has decided that the victorious Greeks must embrace peace and pardon the enemy and so he releases the Trojan prisoners. At this moment Arbace, the king’s advisor, brings news that Idomeneo’s fleet has been shipwrecked in a storm and that Idomeneo has been drowned. Elettra, already outraged by Idamante’s decision to free the enemy prisoners, realises that if Idomeneo is dead she will be powerless to prevent Idamante from marrying Ilia.

The storm subsides. Idomeneo and his soldiers are spared. Alone, Idomeneo is torn with guilt by the vow he made to Neptune to sacrifice the first person he should meet if his own life were spared from the storm. Idomeneo sees an unknown man approaching. It is own son, Idamante, looking for his father’s body on the shore. Father and son have not seen each other for more than ten years, so the two men do not recognize each other at first. When Idomeneo realizes who his victim is destined to be, he rushes away, leaving Idamante in despair at the loss of his newly found father. Idomeneo’s troops give thanks for their victory over the Greeks and their miraculous escape from shipwreck.

Act II

Idomeneo confides in Arbace and begs him to help save his son. They agree that Idamante must leave Crete, and that as a pretext for the departure Idamante should escort Elettra back to Argos. Ilia tells Idomeneo that although she has lost everything, she feels that Crete is her home now and that Idomeneo is like another father. Alone, Idomeneo realises that Ilia is in love with Idamante, and that all three of them will be the victims of his rash vow.

Elettra is happy that Idamante is to escort her home. Away from Ilia she is sure that he will come to love her again. But just as she and Idamante are about to leave, a violent storm breaks out. The people of Crete, terrified, demand to know who the victim is who must be sacrificed to appease Neptune. Unheard by the people, Idomeneo addresses the god, refusing to sacrifice an innocent victim and insisting that he alone should be punished. When an enormous monster appears from the sea, the people flee from it.

Act III

Ilia wishes she had revealed her love to Idamante before he left, when suddenly he appears. He tells Ilia that since he must live without her, he has decided to destroy the monster and die. When Ilia begs him to live, the two declare their love for each other. Idomeneo and Elettra find them together, and Idomeneocommands his son to leave Crete immediately. Idamante agrees to depart, but alone. Arbace tells Idomeneo that the people are demanding that he save them from the monster. Alone, Arbace laments the destruction of Crete.

The High Priest shows Idomeneo the devastation caused by the monster and demands that the king name the victim who must be sacrificed. When Idomeneoreveals that the victim is his own son, Idamante, the people are deeply moved. Idomeneo and the priests prepare for the sacrifice. Idamante is led in. He now understands that his father had been trying to protect him all along. Idamante courageously insists that the sacrifice must proceed, when Ilia interrupts saying that since she is the enemy of Greece she alone must die. The voice of Neptune is heard proclaiming that love has won: Idomeneo must give up the throne to Idamante and Ilia, and the gods will be satisfied. Elettra is again plunged into despair at the prospect of losing Idamante to Ilia.

Idomeneo abdicates and announces peace. He instructs his people to accept Idamante as their new king, and to follow a new path forward…