2 DVD - 001.2009 - (c) 2009

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)






Idomeneo, KV 366


Dramma per musica in tre atti - Libretto di Giambattista Varesco (1736-1805)






Ouverture |
58' 21" DVD1-1
ATTO PRIMO
|

- Scena I - Recitativo: "Quando avran fine ormai" - (Ilia)

DVD1-2
- Scena I - No. 1 Aria: "Padre, germani, addio!" - (Ilia)


- Scena I - Recitativo: "Ecco Idamante, ahimè!" - (Ilia)


- Scene II & III - Recitativo: "Del fato de' Troian" - (Idamante, Ilia)

DVD1-3
- Scene II & III - No. 2 Aria: "Non ho colpa" - (Idamante)


- Scene II & III - Recitativo: "Ecco il misero resto" - (Ilia, Idamante)


- Scene II & III - No. 3 Coro: "Godiam la pace"


- Scene IV-VI - Recitativo: "Prence, signor" - (Elettra, Idamante, Arbace, Ilia)

DVD1-4
- Scene IV-VI - No. 4 Aria: "Tutte nel cor vi sento" - (Elettra)


- Scene VII & VIII - No. 5 Coro: "Pietà! Numi, pietà!"

DVD1-5
- Scene VII & VIII - Recitativo: "Eccovi salvi alfin" - (Idomeneo)


- Scena IX - Recitativo: "Tranquillo è il mar" - (Idomeneo)

DVD1-6
- Scena IX - No. 6 Aria: "Vedrommi intorno" - (Idomeneo)


- Scena IX - Recitativo: "Cieli! che veggo?" - (Idomeneo)


- Scena X - Recitativo: "Spiagge romite" - (Idomeneo, Idamante)

DVD1-7
- Scena X - No. 7 Aria: "Il padre adorato" - (Idamante)


- INTERMEZZO - No. 8 Marcia

DVD1-8
- INTERMEZZO - No. 9 Coro e Soli: "Nettuno d'onori"


ATTO SECONDO

42' 54"
- Scena I - No. 10a Recitativo: "Tutto m'è noto" - (Arbace, Idomeneo)

DVD1-9
- Scena II - Recitativo: "Se mai pomposo apparse" - (Idomeneo, Ilia)

DVD1-10
- Scena II - No. 11 Aria: "Se il padre perdei" - (Ilia)


- Scena III - Recitativo: "Qual mi conturba i sensi" - (Idomeneo)

DVD1-11
- Scena III - No. 12a Aria: "Fuor del mar" - (Idomeneo)


- Scena IV - Recitativo: "Chi mai del mio provò" - (Elettra)

DVD1-12
- Scena IV - No. 13 Aria: "Idol mio, se ritroso" - (Elettra)


- Scena IV - No. 14 Marcia: "Odo da lunge" - (Elettra)


- Scena V - Recitativo: "Sidonie sponde!" - (Elettra)

DVD1-13
- Scena V - No. 15 Coro: "Placido è il mar" - (Coro, Elettra)


- Scena VI - Recitativo: "Vattene, prence" - (Idomeneo, Idamante)

DVD1-14
- Scena VI - No. 16 Terzetto: "Pria di partir, oh Dio!" - (Idomeneo, Idamante, Elettra)


- Scena VI - No. 17 Coro: "Qual nuovo terrore!"


- Scena VI - Recitativo: "Eccoti in me, barbaro Nume!" - (Idomeneo)


- Scena VI - No. 18 Coro: "Corriamo, fuggiamo"


ATTO TERZO
81' 02"
- Scena I - Recitativo: "Solitudini amiche" - (Ilia)

DVD2-1
- Scena I - No. 19 Aria: "Zeffiretti lusinghieri" (Ilia)


- Scena I - Recitativo: "Ei stesso vien... oh Dei!" - (Ilia)


- Scene II & III - Recitativo: "Principessa, a' tuoi sguardi" - (Idamante, Ilia)

DVD2-2
- Scene II & III - No. 20a Duetto: "S'io non moro a questi accenti" - (Idamante, Ilia)


- Scene II & III - Recitativo: "Cieli! che vedo?" - (Idomeneo, Ilia, Idamante, Elettra)


- Scene II & III - No. 21 Quartetto: "Andrò rammingo" - (Idamante, Ilia, Elettra, Idomeneo)


- Scene IV & V - Recitativo: "Sire, alla reggia tua" - (Arbace, Ilia, Idomeneo, Elettra)

DVD2-3
- Scene IV & V - Recitativo: "Sventurata Sidon!" - (Arbace)


- Scene IV & V - No. 22 Aria: "Se colà ne' fati è scritto" - (Arbace)


- Scena VI - No. 23 Recitativo: "Volgi intorno lo sguardo" - (Gran Sacerdote, Idomeneo)

DVD2-4
- Scena VI - No. 24 Coro: "Oh voto tremendo!" - (Coro, Gran Sacerdote)


- Scene VII & VIII - No. 25 Marcia

DVD2-5
- Scene VII & VIII - No. 26 Cavatina con Coro: "Accogli, oh re del mar" - (Idomeneo, Sacerdoti, Coro)


- Scene VII & VIII - Recitativo: "Qual risuona qui intorno" - (Idomeneo, Arbace)


- Scene IX & X - No. 27 Recitativo: "Padre, mio caro padre" - (Idamante, Idomeneo, Ilia, Gran Sacerdote)

DVD2-6
- Scene IX & X - No. 28d La Voce: "Ha vinto amore..."


- Scene IX & X - No. 29 Recitativo: "Oh ciel pietoso!" - (Idomeneo, Idamante, Ilia, Arbace, Elettra)


- Scena ultima - No. 30 Recitativo: "Popoli, a voi l'ultima legge impone" - (Idomeneo)

DVD2-7
- Scena ultima - No. 31 Coro: "Scenda Amor, scenda Imeneo"


- BALLET - No. 32 Ballet (KV 367) - (Chaconne, Larghetto, La Chaconne qui reprend, Largo. Allegretto. Largo)

DVD2-8








BONUS: Making of Idomeneo ("Sein ersters mal") - A documentary by Felix Breisach on the production of "Idomeneo" in Graz.

29' 42"




 
Saimir Pirgu, Idomeneo Philippe & N. Harnoncourt, Stage direction
Marie-Claude Chappuis, Idamante Heinz Spoerli, Choreography
Julia Kleiter, Ilia Rolf Glittenberg, Set design
Eva Mei, Elettra Renate Martin, Costume design
Jeremy Ovenden, Arbace Andreas Donhauser, Costume design
Rudolf Schasching, Gran Sacerdote Friedrich Rom, Lighting
Yasushi Hirano, Voce



Arnold Schoenberg Chor / Erwin Ortner, Choir director

Solisten des Züricher Ballets


Concentus Musicus Wien

Erich Höbarth, Violin (concertmaster) Dorothea Schönwiese, Violoncello
Maria Bader-Kubizek, Violin Edi Hruza, Kontrabass
Andrea Bischof, Violin Andrew Ackerman, Kontrabass
Christian Eisenberger, Violin Hermann Eisterer, Kontrabass
Editha Fetz, Violin Michael Schmid-Castorff, Flute
Annelie Gahl, Violin Reinhard Czasch, Flute
Alice Harnoncourt, Violin Hans-Peter Westermann, Oboe
Silvia Iberer, Violin Marie Wolf, Oboe
Barbara Klebel-Vock, Violin Wolfgang Meyer, Clarinet
Veronica Kröner, Violin Alvaro Iborra, Clarinet
Ingrid Loacker, Violin Milan Turković, Bassoon
Anita Mitterer, Violin Eleanor Froelich, Bassoon
Peter Schoberwalter jun., Violin Glen Borling, Horn
Peter Schoberwalter sen., Violin Edward Deskur, Horn
Christian Tachezi, Violin Sandor Endrödy, Horn
Irene Troi, Violin Michel Gasciarino, Horn
Ursula Kortschak, Viola Andreas Lackner, Trumpet
Gerold Klaus, Viola Herbert Walser, Trumpet
Lynn Pascher, Viola Otmar Gaiswinkler, Trombone
Herlinde Schaller, Viola Johannes Fuchshuber, Trombone
Dorle Sommer, Viola Josef Ritt, Trombone
Wouter Raubenheimer, Viola Dieter Seiler, Timpani
Dorle Sommer, Viola Herbert Tachezi, Cembalo
Herwig Tachezi, Violoncello (Continuo)



Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor

 
Luogo e data di registrazione
Helmut-List-Halle, Graz (Austria) - luglio 2008
Registrazione live / studio
live
Producer / Engineer
Steirische Kulturveranstaltungen GmbH
Prima Edizione CD
-
Prima Edizione DVD
Styriarte - 001.2009 - (2 DVDs) - 101' 05" + 110' 44" - (c) 2009 - PAL 16:9 - Stereo

Notes
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)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
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