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2 DVD
- 001.2009 - (c) 2009
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Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1756-1791) |
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Idomeneo, KV 366 |
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Dramma per musica in tre
atti - Libretto di Giambattista Varesco
(1736-1805) |
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Ouverture |
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58' 21" |
DVD1-1
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ATTO PRIMO
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- Scena I - Recitativo:
"Quando avran fine ormai" - (Ilia) |
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DVD1-2
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- Scena I - No. 1 Aria:
"Padre, germani, addio!" - (Ilia) |
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- Scena I - Recitativo:
"Ecco Idamante, ahimè!" - (Ilia) |
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- Scene II & III -
Recitativo: "Del fato de' Troian" -
(Idamante, Ilia) |
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DVD1-3
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- Scene II & III -
No. 2 Aria: "Non ho colpa" - (Idamante) |
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- Scene II & III -
Recitativo: "Ecco il misero resto" -
(Ilia, Idamante) |
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- Scene II & III -
No. 3 Coro: "Godiam la pace" |
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- Scene IV-VI -
Recitativo: "Prence, signor" - (Elettra,
Idamante, Arbace, Ilia) |
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DVD1-4
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- Scene IV-VI - No. 4
Aria: "Tutte nel cor vi sento" -
(Elettra) |
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- Scene VII & VIII -
No. 5 Coro: "Pietà! Numi, pietà!" |
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DVD1-5
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- Scene VII & VIII -
Recitativo: "Eccovi salvi alfin" -
(Idomeneo) |
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- Scena IX - Recitativo:
"Tranquillo è il mar" - (Idomeneo) |
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DVD1-6
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- Scena IX - No. 6 Aria:
"Vedrommi intorno" - (Idomeneo) |
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- Scena IX - Recitativo:
"Cieli! che veggo?" - (Idomeneo) |
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- Scena X - Recitativo:
"Spiagge romite" - (Idomeneo, Idamante) |
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DVD1-7
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- Scena X - No. 7 Aria:
"Il padre adorato" - (Idamante) |
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- INTERMEZZO - No. 8
Marcia |
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DVD1-8 |
- INTERMEZZO - No. 9
Coro e Soli: "Nettuno d'onori" |
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ATTO
SECONDO
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42' 54" |
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- Scena I - No. 10a
Recitativo: "Tutto m'è noto" - (Arbace,
Idomeneo) |
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DVD1-9 |
- Scena II - Recitativo:
"Se mai pomposo apparse" - (Idomeneo,
Ilia) |
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DVD1-10 |
- Scena II - No. 11
Aria: "Se il padre perdei" - (Ilia) |
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- Scena III -
Recitativo: "Qual mi conturba i sensi" -
(Idomeneo) |
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DVD1-11 |
- Scena III - No. 12a
Aria: "Fuor del mar" - (Idomeneo) |
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- Scena IV - Recitativo:
"Chi mai del mio provò" - (Elettra) |
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DVD1-12 |
- Scena IV - No. 13
Aria: "Idol mio, se ritroso" - (Elettra) |
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- Scena IV - No. 14
Marcia: "Odo da lunge" - (Elettra) |
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- Scena V - Recitativo:
"Sidonie sponde!" - (Elettra) |
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DVD1-13 |
- Scena V - No. 15 Coro:
"Placido è il mar" - (Coro, Elettra) |
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- Scena VI - Recitativo:
"Vattene, prence" - (Idomeneo, Idamante) |
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DVD1-14 |
- Scena VI - No. 16
Terzetto: "Pria di partir, oh Dio!" -
(Idomeneo, Idamante, Elettra) |
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- Scena VI - No. 17
Coro: "Qual nuovo terrore!" |
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- Scena VI - Recitativo:
"Eccoti in me, barbaro Nume!" -
(Idomeneo) |
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- Scena VI - No. 18
Coro: "Corriamo, fuggiamo" |
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ATTO TERZO |
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81' 02" |
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- Scena I - Recitativo:
"Solitudini amiche" - (Ilia) |
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DVD2-1 |
- Scena I - No. 19 Aria:
"Zeffiretti lusinghieri" (Ilia) |
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- Scena I - Recitativo:
"Ei stesso vien... oh Dei!" - (Ilia) |
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- Scene II & III -
Recitativo: "Principessa, a' tuoi
sguardi" - (Idamante, Ilia) |
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DVD2-2 |
- Scene II & III -
No. 20a Duetto: "S'io non moro a questi
accenti" - (Idamante, Ilia) |
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- Scene II & III -
Recitativo: "Cieli! che vedo?" -
(Idomeneo, Ilia, Idamante, Elettra) |
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- Scene II & III -
No. 21 Quartetto: "Andrò rammingo" -
(Idamante, Ilia, Elettra, Idomeneo) |
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- Scene IV & V -
Recitativo: "Sire, alla reggia tua" -
(Arbace, Ilia, Idomeneo, Elettra) |
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DVD2-3 |
- Scene IV & V -
Recitativo: "Sventurata Sidon!" -
(Arbace) |
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- Scene IV & V - No.
22 Aria: "Se colà ne' fati è scritto" -
(Arbace) |
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- Scena VI - No. 23
Recitativo: "Volgi intorno lo sguardo" -
(Gran Sacerdote, Idomeneo) |
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DVD2-4 |
- Scena VI - No. 24
Coro: "Oh voto tremendo!" - (Coro, Gran
Sacerdote) |
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- Scene VII & VIII -
No. 25 Marcia |
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DVD2-5 |
- Scene VII & VIII -
No. 26 Cavatina con Coro: "Accogli, oh
re del mar" - (Idomeneo, Sacerdoti,
Coro) |
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- Scene VII & VIII -
Recitativo: "Qual risuona qui intorno" -
(Idomeneo, Arbace) |
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- Scene IX & X - No.
27 Recitativo: "Padre, mio caro padre" -
(Idamante, Idomeneo, Ilia, Gran
Sacerdote) |
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DVD2-6 |
- Scene IX & X - No.
28d La Voce: "Ha vinto amore..." |
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- Scene IX & X - No.
29 Recitativo: "Oh ciel pietoso!" -
(Idomeneo, Idamante, Ilia, Arbace,
Elettra) |
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- Scena ultima - No. 30
Recitativo: "Popoli, a voi l'ultima
legge impone" - (Idomeneo) |
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DVD2-7 |
- Scena ultima - No. 31
Coro: "Scenda Amor, scenda Imeneo" |
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- BALLET - No. 32 Ballet
(KV 367) - (Chaconne, Larghetto, La
Chaconne qui reprend, Largo.
Allegretto. Largo) |
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DVD2-8 |
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BONUS: Making of Idomeneo
("Sein ersters mal") - A documentary by
Felix Breisach on the production of
"Idomeneo" in Graz.
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29' 42" |
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Saimir
Pirgu, Idomeneo |
Philippe
& N. Harnoncourt, Stage
direction |
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Marie-Claude
Chappuis, Idamante |
Heinz
Spoerli, Choreography |
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Julia
Kleiter, Ilia |
Rolf
Glittenberg, Set design |
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Eva
Mei, Elettra |
Renate
Martin, Costume design |
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Jeremy
Ovenden, Arbace
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Andreas
Donhauser, Costume design |
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Rudolf
Schasching, Gran Sacerdote |
Friedrich
Rom, Lighting |
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Yasushi
Hirano, Voce |
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Arnold Schoenberg
Chor / Erwin Ortner, Choir
director
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Solisten des
Züricher Ballets |
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Concentus Musicus
Wien
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Erich
Höbarth, Violin (concertmaster) |
Dorothea
Schönwiese, Violoncello |
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Maria
Bader-Kubizek, Violin |
Edi
Hruza, Kontrabass |
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Andrea
Bischof, Violin |
Andrew
Ackerman, Kontrabass |
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Christian
Eisenberger, Violin |
Hermann
Eisterer, Kontrabass |
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Editha
Fetz, Violin |
Michael
Schmid-Castorff, Flute |
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Annelie
Gahl, Violin |
Reinhard
Czasch, Flute |
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Alice
Harnoncourt, Violin |
Hans-Peter
Westermann, Oboe |
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Silvia
Iberer, Violin |
Marie
Wolf, Oboe |
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Barbara
Klebel-Vock, Violin |
Wolfgang
Meyer, Clarinet |
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Veronica
Kröner, Violin |
Alvaro
Iborra, Clarinet |
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Ingrid
Loacker, Violin |
Milan
Turković, Bassoon |
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Anita
Mitterer, Violin |
Eleanor
Froelich, Bassoon |
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Peter
Schoberwalter jun., Violin |
Glen
Borling, Horn |
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Peter
Schoberwalter sen., Violin |
Edward
Deskur, Horn |
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Christian
Tachezi, Violin |
Sandor
Endrödy, Horn |
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Irene
Troi, Violin |
Michel
Gasciarino, Horn |
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Ursula
Kortschak, Viola |
Andreas
Lackner, Trumpet |
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Gerold
Klaus, Viola |
Herbert
Walser, Trumpet |
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Lynn
Pascher, Viola |
Otmar
Gaiswinkler, Trombone |
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Herlinde
Schaller, Viola |
Johannes
Fuchshuber, Trombone |
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Dorle
Sommer, Viola |
Josef
Ritt, Trombone |
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Wouter
Raubenheimer, Viola |
Dieter
Seiler, Timpani |
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Dorle
Sommer, Viola |
Herbert
Tachezi, Cembalo |
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Herwig
Tachezi, Violoncello (Continuo) |
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, Conductor
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Luogo e data
di registrazione
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Helmut-List-Halle,
Graz (Austria) - luglio 2008 |
Registrazione
live / studio
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live |
Producer / Engineer
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Steirische
Kulturveranstaltungen GmbH |
Prima Edizione
CD
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Prima
Edizione DVD
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Styriarte
- 001.2009 - (2 DVDs) - 101' 05" + 110'
44" - (c) 2009 - PAL 16:9 - Stereo |
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Notes
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AN
INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT
Thirty years ago, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
began to reinterpret Mozart`s Idomeneo
in a radical way:
with a bang the twenty-five year old
genius brought the piece from seria
theatre into the life of suffering
people - at that time in the legendary
Zurich production with Werner Hollweg in
the title role and Rachel Yakar as Ilia.
Since then the conductor has never let
go of Idomeneo. Recent finds of
original sources have opened new
perspectives and allowed Harnoncourt to
delve ever deeper into the essence of
the piece. At styriarte, he also
directed the opera for the first time
alongside his son Philipp, though he has
vowed that this is the first and only
time in his life to do so. The maestro
talks about the reasons for this step,
about the uniqueness of Idomeneo
and the Graz performances in an
interview with Karl Böhmer
and Mathis Huber.
Mr Harnoncourt, Idomeneo is a
piece that you have already performed
in Zurich and Vienna. Why a third
Idomeneo?
For as long as I have been involved in
opera, which is a lot more than thirty
years, Idomeneo
has always been wrongly classified
and performed. I mean this even with the
two directors with whom I have performed
this piece before: ]ean-Pierre Ponnelle
in Zurich, the first Mozart
opera that I ever conducted, and
Johannes Schaaf in the
Vienna State Opera. In Zurich, I was
somehow still too naive to understand
completely what we were doing right and
what we were doing wrong. In Vienna we
came a number of steps closer but it was
not convincing enough for the director.
People were of the opinion that Mozart
had already written two opere serie, Mitridate
and Lucio Silla, and this was
simply the third, which differed only in
that Mozart now posessed his full, adult
genius. Because of that, people
generally say
that Idomeneo
was Mozart’s first major
Italian opera and that
is simply fundamentally wrong. It was
Mozart’s first major opera but it
actually had very little to do with
Italian opera.
But it is sung in Italian...
Out of necessity or coincidence, the
piece is in the Italian language but it
is not an Italian opera. There are so
many things in this opera which cannot
happen in an Italian opera. The sources
are entirely different. Mozart got to
know French theatre and French music
very well when he visited Paris. He
understood there what had actually
happened hetween Lully and Rameau; and
also with Gluck, on a somewhat inferior
musical level but on a higher theatre
level. And he must certainly have
suspected something there. Now in
Mannheim he had gotten to know the then
Elector Palatine and the court,
particularly the famous Mannheim
orchestra, apparently the best orchestra
in the world at the time, and made
friends with the leading orchestra
musicians. Exactly in the time between
his journey to Paris and his Idomeneo,
the Mannheim elector became the head of
orchestra in Munich and moved to Munich
with his entire Mannheim orchestra. The
Mannheim orchestra was musically very Paris-oriented
and had their summer quarters in Paris,
like the American orchestra in
Tanglewood today. Now Mozart had this
orchestra with a strong French
influence in Munich, near to Salzburg,
and he had the knowledge of
French theatre and French opera. The
opera itself of course had
to be in Italian but what came from this
was that it was a great tragédie
lyrique, a French operatic
tragedy, not an opera seria.
What is the difference?
You can tell from the form. When the first
act ends with a chaconne -
march and chaconne, they belong together
- and the last act ends with a march and
a chaconne, then it cannot be an Italian
opera because they
didn’t have that there. Every act ends
one or two pieces before the
audience expects the end. After one of
Idamante's sad arias, there is
a fine del atto primo, and then comes a
march and then a great choral chaconne.
My directors until now did not notice
that. They all thought that he just
wrote the fine del atto primo ten pages
too early. Afterwards, however, is
written intermezzo, which is a feature
of French opera. In the
English half opera we find the same but
here it is called masque and
brings a completely new idea into the
piece. Every act ends
with an intermezzo and, symmetrically,
the first and last act with
a march and chaconne. The last chaconne
is a fifteen minute long piece like the
great French chaconnes with which all
French operas end. So it is something
that no conductor would allow. You
simply do not do that because the
audience normally comes to the opera to
see operas and hear the singers sing, as
many high notes as possible, and they do
not want to see some old ballet at the
end. If however, the piece is arranged
and composed in that way and has an
entirely different form and if the
greatest music-dramatical genius who
ever lived, if he composed it, then I am
challenged by the first failure from
over thirty years ago and I want to fail
at some stage and, if I have to fail,
then I want to at least fail my way.
Let’s move from the form to the
content. What is the message of Idomeneo
for you?
It had very modern messages. It is the
clash of three different cultures. It
comes right at the start in the
monologue by Ilia, a Trojan. We see that
the Trojans have a culture which is of a
far higher level than that of the
Cretans. The Trojan prisoners on Crete
even experience a form of culture shock.
We see that in the text and also in the
music. Then there are two groups within
the Cretan culture: the effectively
traditional old Cretans and the new
Cretans. The protagonists among the old
Cretans are Idomeneo and the high
priest. They are afraid - that is the
main feeling, from the first note of the
overture you can hear that this is about
fear. They are afraid of the sea, like
almost all people who live on an island,
they are afraid of the embodiment of the
sea, of Neptune, and to conquer this
fear somehow they are ready to sacrifice
people. So, that is a primeval religion
which is about human sacrifice and fear.
And the high priest is, of course, the
person who most advocates this religion,
along with Idomeneo and Elettra,
who also belong to this culture. Ilia
comes from Troy and can’t understand it
at all. She says in her aria that since
she was small she was told
that to hate everything Greek, the
highest levels of xenophobia. Then
lliere is a young enlightened group
around Idamante within Crete which luis
no fear at all, does not believe in
Neptune and for who terror and fear is
the old, which must be overcome at all
costs. Their mentor, Arbace, also thinks
this way and is Idamante’s great
teacher. He is the great adversary of
the high priest, who stirs up the people
against these young people and the
Trojans. Arbace teaches peace,
forgiveness and conquering superstition
and fear. There are,
then, these three worlds within the
Cretan world represented
by the two leaders, the high priest and
Arbace. The old guru, Arbace, may have
even taught Idomeneo, which we recognize
at the start of the second act, where
the two speak to each other: he speaks
with Idomeneo as with a school boy - we
feel that he is maybe ten or twenty
years older and had educated him but had
not entirely succeeded. The high priest
also has a human side which is very
moving, I feel: he says that the
sacrifice must
be made, that Idamante’s head must be
chopped off. And then, when he realises
that he is Idomeneo’s son, he says “You
cannot do this, arresta la mano, you are
his father.” He is thinking “I also have
children and this could
happen to my children too.” Here we get
a glimpse of the high priest’s human
side for a few seconds. In
the next moment Ilia comes and tries to
rescue Idamante. He then says “Do not
move the sacrifice. This
has to happen.” That is so contemporary,
so present-day - I do not need to
perform a historic piece - I only hear
present-day.
To go back to the music
again, yon try to go back to the
original sources as much as possible.
What original sources supported you
for Idomeneo?
Original sources are unavoidable, they
are necessary. Because lmsically we are
all, myself included, idiots when
compared with the original. You can see
opinions in the different versions but
no “original text”. Every
version is an interpretation. I do not
want somebody else’s interpretation now.
In this situation we have a fantastic
autograph score with many notes by
Mozart. I use the copy also here at
rehearsals - any singer can
take a look when I explain lo him
why he should sing those three notes
differently to the way they appear in
the print version. Then I show him what
Mozart wrote there. So we have that
here. They didn’t yet have this for the
New Mozart Edition because that was in
Krakow. And later, the Munich
performance material was also
discovered. It is
incredibly interesting because you can
recognise how Mozart pragmatically made
changes from performance to performance.
The cuts he made are simply ingenious.
We scratch our heads: how can we make
this work harmonically? And then the
great artists come and nail it together
somehow in the difficult parts. For
Mozart it was a piece of cake. So, you
can learn an awful lot from this Munich
version.
Were there other sources which were
important for you?
The correspondence of course. His father
was in Salzburg, he was in Munich and
they wrote to each
other almost daily once rehearsals
started. There is no journal like this
for the development of any other opera,
where each really
understands what the other thinks. You
can really learn so much from their
exchange. For example, “This aria must
go because otherwise
people will leave the opera having only
heard this aria." Then he left the
greatest aria of the entire opera out. A
composer must have so much courage to do
this and also to get the singers to
abandon their most effective pieces.
From studying this we figured out what
we are performing here. And then, of
course, is the question: what does
French opera mean? It means a lot of
dance. It is too little
for the ballet to suddenly arrive for
the finale. The question is:
what was going on with the ballet? Then
it came to light that the opera was
directed by the head of ballet in
Munich. And Mozart was constantly
writing about the ballet and then it
came out that the overture is not
actually a proper overture. So that is
also a deciding question for the
performance of this piece.
You just mentioned how difficult it must
have been for Mozart to convince Anton
Raaff and Elisabeth
Wendling to give up
their best
pieces. Our
singers here in this production
nlso had to abandon effects that
they are used
to, like our Idomeneo, Saimir Pirgu in
his aria di bravura. Every reputable
tenor would come here and sing "Fuor
del mar!" as loud as possible but
you ask him to sing piano.
I just show him what is written
there. I ask him why Mozart
writes “piano” there. Of course it is
great to sing “Fuor del mar!”
tremendously and very loudly, even at a
comfortable pitch. But very intense things
become even more intense when
they are quiet. When
someone threatens and
yells, it is generally not taken
seriously. But when
someone threatens and becomes very
quiet, then the threat can be very
dangerous. I experienced it
that way in
my school days, probably like each of
you, not the younger ones, because that
does not happen anymore.
Why did you
cast such a young singer in the role
of Idomeneo?
How old is Idomeneo? Well, Idamante is,
let’s say eighteen to twenty - he is
experiencing his first love. His father
led troops in the Trojan War. He is,
let’s say, forty-three. I have to say
honestly that I don’t know how old the
soloist Saimir Pirgu is. He is a little
younger than fortythree. But is that so
important? I always wanted a large,
sixty year old actress to play Gretchen,
such a great actress that after five
minutes she seems to be seventeen years
old. That’s theatre! If I chose my cast
based on their age then I would be
making movies. But I am very happy with
my cast here in Graz.
As well as the singers, the ballet
plays an aoutstanding
role.
There is ballet throughout the entire
piece. And there is dance at
all the parts composed in a
ballet style. That would
never be the way in an
Italian opera either. It is a
characteristic of French opera that
dance as a form of expression is a
fundamental form of communication. It is
the only opera in which Mozart does
that. These little dances in Le
Nozze di Figaro and Don
Giovanni, they are something
completely different. But that
is a truly professional dance -
it can only be done by a ballet company.
It is the first time that you
have
done Idomeneo with Concentus
Musicus, so with the sound of
Mozart's time. Is that a particular
challenge?
In my first
performance I had already obliged the
strings to play on gut strings. I had
some period wind
instruments in the Zurich opera but I
did not have the entire wind
section. Then there is the question of
the pitch; how high, that is also very
important for the singers. We play in
the pitch that we think
they would have used in Munich at that
time, at 430 Hz. That is ten to
fifteen oscillations less than is
normally played today and is a big
help for the singers. But of course it
is: Idomeneo was written
for the best orchestra in the world.
And that is a great challenge!
(Translation:
Fiona Begley)
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Nikolaus
Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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