Well well well! This one is innn-teeerr-esst-ing! This here is some opera seria. So we're on Crete, following the Trojan War. The prince, Idamante, and a captive Trojan princess, Ilia, are in love, and also, Elektra (or "Elettra") is there for reasons that are entirely unclear. She's also in love with Idamante. Idomeneo, the Cretan king, was killed in a shipwreck, except nope, turns out he survived, but only by swearing to Neptune that he'd sacrifice the first person he sees, which then turns out to be his son, causing him great distress (side note: does this mean that had circumstances been different, he'd happily have murdered a stranger? He's supposed to be a hero, but that doesn't seem too heroic). In any event, he's going to send Idamante away so he'll be safe, but Neptune sends a monster who kills, we are told, thousands of people, so he's reluctantly going to sacrifice his son when Neptune says nope, wait, changed my mind, Idamante should marry Ilia and be king. So that happens. And everyone's happy except Elektra, who goes insane.
It would probably be instructive to contrast this with La clemenza di Tito, Mozart's later opera seria. In that one, the title character feels obligated to have his friend put to death, and the drama is whether mercy will prevail. Whereas the drama here, if you can call it that, is whether a vengeful god will relent for no reason. I mean SERIOUSLY (or seria-ly), Tito has a pretty clear message: mercy is laudable. What's the message here? Psychopathic blood gods will fuck your shit up if you don't obey their whims, but then maybe if you're lucky they'll stop fucking your shit up? It's...possibly a tiny bit less dramatically compelling.
Also, let me ask: why is Elektra a character in this opera? WHY? She seriously does nothing; she could easily be removed with zero impact on anything in the story. I'm not sure she actually interacts with anyone ever, and if she does it's barely. Still, give her this: she has a lengthy going-insane aria at the end after Idamante and Ilia become a done deal, and it is definitely not supposed to be hilarious (though I couldn't tell you what dramatic effect it was meant to have), and yet it is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in an opera. I guess it's partially the way Elza van der Heever plays it, but this whole unhinged rant, totally unearned, is just so incongruous. The other characters just sort of stand around and don't really react, which I suppose is fair: what do you possibly dofaced with something like that?
Still! As silly as it is, if you actually listen to the music behind it, it's awesome. That's the thing: the fact that this is Mozart is enough to forgive an awful lot, even if it's obvious why this is not one of your better-known Mozarts. This production is probably about the best it's going to get, with good traditional sets with solid performances from, in addition to van der Heever, Matthew Polenzani in the lead Nadine Sierra as Ilia; Alice Coote is fine as Idamante, though I do wonder if she ever gets tired of doing these trouser roles. I don't think I've ever seen her play a woman.
So, yeah. On the bottom of my Mozart list, but still strangely watchable.
but only by swearing to Neptune that he'd sacrifice the first person he sees, which then turns out to be his son, causing him great distress (side note: does this mean that had circumstances been different, he'd happily have murdered a stranger? He's supposed to be a hero, but that doesn't seem too heroic)
ReplyDeleteI suppose the Ancient Greek view on the matter would have been that once Neptune accepted the offering and saved the King in exchange for the promised sacrifice, the blame shifts to him; the King is, by fulfilling the contract, just doing the Gods' will.