This month Opera San José was scheduled to conclude its season with a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 620 opera The Magic Flute. By way of compensation for the cancellation of this project due to COVID-19, the company has provided a live-stream source for an earlier Mozart production, the K. 366 Idomeneo. This performance was given in 2011, and it has many merits.
Most importantly, the conductor for this production was George Cleve, best known for his annual Midsummer Mozart Festival, which he produced until his death in August of 2015. This video document allows one to appreciate the full diversity of Cleve’s approach to conducting Mozart, including instrumental sections, vocal solos, choral work, and even ballet music. The latter, in turn, was given choreography by Dennis Nahat and was performed by Ballet San Jose, which disbanded in 2016.
Idomeneo is half a decade earlier than the K. 492 The Marriage of Figaro, the first of the three operas with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The Idomeneo libretto by Giambattista Varesco is a far cry from Da Ponte. Nevertheless, the expressiveness of Mozart’s music tends to rise above many of the melodramatic shortcomings of Varesco’s libretto.
The plot is set following the end of the Trojan War. Poseidon had been a supporter of the victorious Greeks but then turned on them. The best example of his wrath can be found in what he did to Odysseus. Where Idomeneus was concerned, Poseidon’s vengeance was not as prolonged. He was allowed to sail safely back to Crete but only if he would then sacrifice the first person he saw upon his return. Naturally, that person turned out to be his son; and Poseidon’s curse becomes the basis for the plot in Varesco’s libretto.
That libretto involves more characters than one might imagine and a fair amount of complexity before a peaceful solution emerges. However, in the midst of all of that complexity, Mozart’s music consistently endows the many characters in this opera with believable and sympathetic motives. At least this is the case during the first two acts, in which more and more complications arise in the wake of the curse placed on the title character. In order to resolve all of those complications, the third act is much longer in duration; and, for all the acute sensitivities of Mozart’s music, it tends to feel as if it goes on forever, even with Cleve’s consistently reliable sense of tempo.
Fortunately, the Web page for streaming the video of this opera has provided separate files for each of the three acts. There is much to be said for watching the first two acts and then allowing a significant interval of time to lapse before launching into the third act. (The files will be available through May 18.) The viewer will then be at less risk of giving into fatigue before all the the complications are resolved (and will probably be more patient with the extended ballet that takes place before the final chorus).
While all of the vocalists presented a solid and informed account of Mozart’s music, there is no question that the greatest asset of this recording is Cleve himself. He knew how to manage every level of detail for both the instrumentalists and the vocalists. (There is a full cast listing on the Web page.) Mozart never sounded better, and we are all the better for having such a well-produced document of Cleve’s interpretation of this particular score.
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