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WARNING! DON'T PAY THE EXORBITANT PRICES ASKED BY SCALPERS
What astonishes me is the recent jump in prices of this excellent CD.
When I bought it, in Nov. 2014, produced by ArkivMusic under license from DG, though sold by Amazon, the price was $40. I just checked, and ArkivMusic is still selling it for $40.
So, what then justifies the present jump to $276 (new) or $184 (used) listed on Amazon? I abhorr it when those scalpers are trying to take advantage of us, music lovers. Why this ripoff? Buy the new version directly from ArkivMusic here or directly from DG in the UK or Germany.
THE SUPREME MASTERPIECE OF OPERA SERIA
Mozart loved the grandiose style.
And Idomeneo is the most grandiose opera music he ever composed.
Mozart considered that, overall, his very best work of all his life productions was "Idomeneo", the grand-style opera seria that he wrote for Munich in 1781, in which he found freedom for his most extreme passionate outbursts.
Constanze asserted, in 1795, that, in "Idomeneo", Mozart's "beauties and excellences" were combined "in an even higher degree" because its material is heroic and "Mozart's spirit shone most brilliantly in the treatment of great and sublime subjects".
This extraordinary opera ended up including:
- up to 34 numbers altogether, more than in any of all his other operas;
- the pyrotechnics of some 9 electrifying choruses;
- the transcendent coloratura of 15 arias;
- 10 remarkable "recitativi accompagnati";
- 3 enchanting ensembles (duetto, terzetto, quartetto);
- 3 energizing marches;
- the spooky subterranean voice of Neptune's oracle;
- and the spectacular final mad scene of Elettra with her stupendous paroxysm of rage No.29a Aria - "D'Oreste, d'Ajace".
(Three most remarkable renditions of this famous last aria, "D'Oreste, d'Ajace", are available on YouTube:
- Anna Netrebko, where she stuns the audience with her dazzling beauty and dramatic energy, in one of her great favorite showpieces;
- Alexandrina Pendatchanska, in a fantastic display of rage sung in Paris to an inert audience, or in a 2008 studio CD by René Jacobs;
- and Hildegard Behrens, in a scene of unforgettable madness on the stage of the Met, with her wild Medusa-like red wig and dramatic gradual collapse to the ground in the famous Levine/Pavarotti/Ponnelle DVD of Nov. 6, 1982).
After listening to this 1977 Dresden Karl Böhm recording, in which Idamante, following the 1786 change from the original 1781, is sung not by a soprano, but by a tenor, (with 4 male voices, Wieslaw Ochman, Peter Schreier, Hermann Winkler, and Eberhard Büchner, framing 2 female voices, Edith Mathis, and Julia Varady), I always like to alternate it immediately with the 1983 Pritchard studio CD, in which Idamante keeps the original 1781 voice of a soprano, in a set of 6 top-class voices (with 3 males, Pavarotti, Nucci, and Timothy Jenkins, against 3 females, Gruberova, Popp, and Baltsa) -- and what seductive, enchanting, voices they all are, indeed!.
Those two CDs are my favorite recordings of the music, the key choice always being Idamante cast as the original 1781 soprano or as the 1786-revised tenor.
To which I add the sumptuous visuals of the Levine/Jean-Pierre Ponnelle DVD made live on Nov. 6, 1982 of the first production ever on the Met stage of the resurrected "Idomeneo", where again Idamante is the original 1781 soprano (with 3 male voices: Pavarotti again, John Alexander, and Timothy Jenkins; versus 3 females: Cotrubas, von Stade, and Hildegard Behrens).
One could rhapsodize and hyperventilate about the fine differences and nuances of the voices and conducting styles in those three lovely interpretations:
- Ochman vs Pavarotti as Idomeneo,
- Peter Schreier vs Agnes Baltsa vs Von Stade as Idamante,
- Mathis vs Popp vs Cotrubas as Ilia,
- Varady vs Gruberova vs Behrens as Elettra,
- Winkler vs Nucci vs Alexander as Arbace,
- Böhm vs Pritchard vs Levine as conductor,
and write tons of paragraphs on subtle nuances to justify one's strong personal choices about those world-class singers and conductors -- and some do love this game of endless subtle comparisons, which are great fun anyway, and challenge the writer to use a series of sophisticated adjectives -- but all this sophisticated, highly subjective, talk, trying to describe in words delicate differences heard in voice qualities, won't change the powerful effect of Mozart's music and our appreciation of Idomeneo as a unique opera.
I must confess that I find Ochman's voice a shade more sharp, more biting, more the distressed Greek king angry at his absurd fate, in sum, more tragic-sounding than the smooth, always in imperial control, Pavarotti, who seems to convey a little less convincingly the agony of Idomeneo's predicament. Peter Schreier delivers his usual impeccably professional performance, but I still prefer Agnes Baltsa for Idamante.
About the other singers, they're all excellent, choices hanging at fine personal predilections. However Nucci is, to me anyway, incontestably the best Arbace, by far. Hildegard Behrens delivers a spectacular visual dramatization of Elettra's final aria "D'Oreste e d'Ajace" in the DVD that is unforgettable.
The solution is to own all three recordings, the two CDs by Böhm and Pritchard, and the sensational Levine/Pavarotti/Ponnelle DVD
And the rendering of the spooky atmosphere of this tragedy seems (to me) more subtly rendered by Böhm. But I am always partial when it comes to Böhm conducting Mozart, so this is my personal feel and bias.
PROBLEMS OF THE PREMIERE, JAN. 29, 1781
After receiving his commission for "Idomeneo" in the summer of 1780, Mozart, already familiar with many of the singers' voices, was able to start work while still in Salzburg (choruses, marches, recitatives) and journeyed to Munich on Nov. 5, 1780. Once in personal contact with the actual singers, Mozart was able to complete the rest of this immense work very rapidly.
No opera production goes without its own share of problems.
In Munich, Mozart encountered plenty. The vocal lines proved challenging for the male singers. Mozart had to carefully coach the two male parts:
- Idomeneo, sung by the reliable and magnificent Anton Raaff, but then aged 66, his breath control was no longer at its prime, and he moved "like a statue" (Nov. 8, 1780).
- Idamante, with whose part Mozart got again unlucky, as he complained to Leopold: Vincenzo del Prato was a young, inexperienced castrato, "who's never appeared on stage", with whom Mozart had to "go through the whole opera" to guide him through the music (Nov. 15, 1780). "He has to learn his entire role like a child, he doesnt' have a farthing's worth of a method" (Nov. 22, 1780).
Mozart was justifiably concerned by their interaction in the great scene 10 of Act I when Idomeneo meets Idamante on the shore, and they recognize each other, "Cieli! che veggo! Ecco, la sventurata vittima" (Idomeneo, Idamante), and Idomeneo leaves his son with an ominous, fateful warning "Paventa il rivedermi!", which the tenor lets resound like a war trumpet alert, just before Idamante launches into his second aria No.7 "Il padre adorato ritrovo, e lo perdo".
THE "1786" VERSION -- NO FINALIZED VERSION OF "IDOMENEO"
Note that there is no definitive version of this opera.
The original text and the autograph score were printed before the initial performance of Jan. 29, 1781. Then Mozart made changes for the première, leaving another score with autograph changes related to the Munich production.
Later, once settled in Vienna, Mozart dreamt of producing his beloved opera for the Austrian capital, and reworked many numbers, creating some confusion about what should be the ideal sequence of music at the end of Act III.
His most significant change -- turning Idamante from a soprano castrato into a tenor -- required adapting many passages in the music to the new voice. Mozart toyed with variations, substitutions, cuts of some numbers, rewrites and simplifications, never finalizing an ideal version.
This revised version was performed in a private performance at Prince Johann Adam Auersperg's own theater in his palace on March 13, 1786. Mozart made 5 major changes.
He wrote two new numbers as concert pieces to replace the original numbers:
- At the beginning of Act II, Arbace's first No.10a Aria - "Se il tuo duol" of the première is omitted, replaced by No.10b Scena, a recitativo accompagnato - "Non piu. Tutto ascoltai" (Ilia)/"Ch'io mi scordi di te?" (Idamante) with the ARIA/RONDO - "Non temer, amato bene" (Idamante), with an extended violin obbligato, K.490.
Sadie, in his book "Mozart - The Early Years, 1756-1781", notes that, amazingly, both recitative and aria are written with a soprano clef and pitch! Sadie finds the new number too long and "out of keeping" with the rest of the work (p. 546).
'[Einstein notes that the same text was also set in the concert aria K.505 - "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" with piano obbligato for "la Signora Storace", a much more intimate and "heartfelt" dialogue, "full of warmth and tenderness", as if an exalted declaration of Mozart's love for Nancy Storace, (p. 370-1).]
- In Act III, No.20a DUETTO - "S'io non moro a questi accenti", the original duet in which Idamante and Ilia declare their mutual love is replaced here with a shorter version, No.20b DUETTO - "Spiegarti non poss'io" (Ilia, Idamante), K.489.
Additional modifications included:
- ACT II. No.12b ARIA - "Fuor del mar ho un mar in seno" (Idomeneo, his second of 3 arias), a majestic rendition to show off Anton Raaff's magnificent voice has been shortened and simplified for Raaff's aging voice by omitting most of the coloratura.
- ACT II. Just before the two final choruses of the act, No.16 TERZETTO - "Pria di partir, o dio!" (Idamante, Elettra, Idomeneo), was reworked to accommodate Idamante's new voice as a tenor.
- ACT III. No.21 QUARTETTO - "Andro ramingo e solo" (Idamante, Ilia, Idomeneo, Elettra), the sublime apex of the whole opera, was also rewritten for Idamante's tenor voice.
[NOTE: Cliff Eisen, in his elegant "New Mozart Documents" (1991), mentions in Document No. 145 (p. 102) a quartet performed at the "Septième Concert de Mrs les Amateurs" in Mannheim, as of Jan. 20, 1786, by four singers. This was most likely the No.21 Quartetto of "Idomeneo", with Dorothea Wendling (Ilia) and Elizabeth Wendling (Elettra), reprizing their parts from the Munich première. And since the other two singers were male, with Friedrich Epp a tenor who also sang Belmonte and Tamino, this must have been the reworked "1786 version" with Epp singing Idomeneo and the second male singer, Franz Danzi, singing Idamante as a tenor. Julian Rushton, the "primo" expert on "Idomeneo", consulted about this assumption, concurs with it. However, he confirms that the autograph for the two new numbers, K. 490 and K.489 is dated March 10, 1786, and there's no documentary evidence that they had been tested in concert by Mozart before the March 13 performance.]
About this 1786 rewrite, Hermann Abert adds: "But it was in the secco recitatives that the most far-reaching cuts were made, generally reducing them to the point where they are only just intelligible." Abert feels that the revisions intended to accommodate the voices of the "amateurs" of 1786 more than to improve the drama, which loses much in the process, and cannot "serve as a model for modern performances" (p. 1338, the last page of his immense text!)
But the modified opera as a whole was never performed publicly in Vienna, with only the known private performance at Prince Auersperg's, with Idamante as a tenor, which became the basis for the so-called "1786" version of "Idomeneo".
So no two recorded performances are 100% identical, each version making some essential choices. The numbers carry small letters to differentiate the options. Even the short "Voce" of Neptune's oracle runs in four different versions (28a, 28b, 28c, and 28d). All these variations can be found online on the NMA site (NEUE MOZART-AUSGABE, DIGITIZED VERSION) http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nmapub_srch.php?l=2
In addition, some recordings present as a bonus the performance of other options not selected in their own versions, so that it is possible to listen to ALL the variations of the music written by Mozart for "Idomeneo".
THE SPECIFIC OPTIONS SELECTED IN THIS 1977 KARL BOEHM RECORDING
For instance, here, in our Böhm recording, the major decision is adopting the 1786 version of Idamante as a tenor instead of a soprano, including the 5 major changes shown above.
In addition, this Böhm version is characterized by the following options:
- In ACT I, Idamante retains his No.7 ARIA - "Il padre adorato ritrovo, e lo perdo" (second of 3 arias), cut in the 1786 version.
- In ACT II, Elettra retains her No.13 ARIA - "Idol mio, se ritroso" (second of 3 arias), cut in 1786.
- In ACT III, Arbace, fortunately, keeps his beautiful accompagnato, "Sventurata Sidon!", and his second No.22 ARIA - "Se cola ne' fati e scritto".
- Idomeneo's prayer in No. 26 CAVATINA CON CORO - "Accogli, Oh Re Del Mar" (Idomeneo, Sacerdoti) has been shortened, as in 1786.
- Idamante's No. 27a ARIA - "No, la morte io non pavento" is, regrettably, omitted, as it was also cut in 1786.
- The "Voce" of Neptune's oracle selected here is No.28a - "Idomeneo cessi essere re", of 4 existing variations.
- Elettra's powerful invocation of the Furies, in her Recitative No.29 - "Oh smania! Oh furie", sung in the première, is retained,
- as well as her famous explosive paroxysm of rage, No.29a ARIA - "D'Oreste e d'Ajace", which was, surprisingly, omitted at the première and in the 1786 version.
- Idomeneo's final No.30a ARIA - "Torna la pace al core", cut at the première and in 1786, is also here, inconsolably, dropped.
[NOTE: In my iTunes downloading of Böhm's 1977 recording, oh, sacrilege, I have cheated by sneaking back in both arias left out by Böhm, No.27a - "No, la morte io non pavento", sung by Agnes Baltsa, and No.30a aria - "Torna la pace al core", sung by Pavarotti, from Pritchard's 1983 recording!]
"IDOMENEO", MOZART'S CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GRANDIOSE GENRE OF OPERA SERIA
"Idomeneo" was a very special work in Mozart's forced career as a free-lance opera composer.
Mary Novello, visiting and questioning Constanze in Salzburg (July 1829), reported that "The most happy time of his life was whilst in Munich during which he wrote 'Idomeneo', which may account for the affection he entertained towards the work", and "one air that he preferred to hear [Constanze] sing, and on that account, she prefers it also, [is No.11, Ilia's 2d aria] 'se il Padre perdei' ".
(As an aside, Constanze, and this is not mentioned very often in critical comments about her, must have been, like her sisters Aloysia and Josepha, a superbly trained singer if she was able to sing Mozart's soprano arias.)
Mozart put his all into it, hoping this would be the demonstration of his talent in the full bloom of his 25 years leading to an offer of a position in Munich, as he had similarly hoped that his 3 Italian opera serias in Milan as a teenager of 14-16 would gain him an appointment to the court of Archduke Ferdinand.
But the opera proved too difficult for Munich. After the opening performance on Jan. 29, 1781, the opera was repeated only twice.
Mozart was universally admired for his technical talent as opera composer, but neither in Munich was he offered the job he had been so persistently ambitioning. The failure in Munich was as scathing as the failure in Milan had been.
Mozart never duplicated the complexity, richness, and depth of intensity of this unique work. The remarkable orchestral music, with its breathtaking variety and lightning-fast appearance of new themes and new ideas, astounded and bewildered the audience.
Thanks to the help of modern recordings, we can now pay close attention to the vocal line while following the libretto, and carefully listen to the orchestral support and responses. One cannot help getting the impression that Mozart decided to please himself by giving unrestricted free rein to his instinctive tendency to let go an avalanche of new themes, ideas, and sound effects. We hear a kind of music that Mozart never wrote for any symphony, concerto or serenade. The result is "Mozart unlimited", staggeringly broad and powerful.
This long opera (around 3 hours) may have been too demanding for the elegant powdered and perfumed aristocratic audience of the 18th c. Mozart's unbridled creativity and his "demonic" side (beloved by Hermann Abert) came out in full force in "Idomeneo", and the gentle music lovers of the time must have been overwhelmed and found the experience too complex and too tiring. They usually went to the opera expecting to have a good time and socialize, and not to be subjected to the extremes of Mozart's passion.
Mozart could easily write far above the ears of his aristocratic audience, as his father never stopped reminding him, and 18th connoisseurs often noticed and complained about, and he did so with a vengeance in "Idomeneo", not going for charm alone, but for the maximum grandiosity of his self-conscious heroic masterpiece. To better appreciate these fireworks of melodies, the solution, only available in our age, is to repeatedly listen to recordings of the work to discover and remember its extraordinary abundance of fleeting ideas, and to study the score in the online edition at the DME of the Salzburg Mozart Foundation.
Mozart "valued and loved 'Idomeneo' most among his works, and this any true musician can easily understand" (Alfred Einstein, p. 407). We have to love the use by Einstein of his qualifiers "true" and "easily".
Hermann Abert recognized the special value of "Idomeneo" in Mozart's music, and devoted the last 13 pages of his monumental book to his "Appendix V - On the genesis of 'Idomeneo' " (p. 1376-1388).
Julian Rushton, an expert on Mozart's operas, added his own book "W.A. Mozart: Idomeneo" (Cambridge, 1993).
[NOTE -- Julian Rushton is the author of the superb short analyses of all 20 operas covered in "Mozart and His Operas", Stanley Sadie ed. (Macmillan, 2000), which unfairly omits the 2 masterpieces "Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots", and "Betulia Liberata", only because they are labeled "oratorios", when in fact they rightly belong to Mozart's operatic creativity. Otto Erich Deutsch, in his "Mozart -- A Documentary Biography" (1965) has demonstrated that, in the 18th c., many Mozart operas were also labeled, at one time or another, "oratorios". 10 of Julian Rushton's excellent Mozart opera presentations were also included in "The NEW GROVE Book of OPERAS", Stanley Sadie ed. (1996).]
"IDOMENEO" NOT YET A CURRENT ESTABLISHED ITEM IN THE CLASSICAL OPERA REPERTORY
An impossible opera to produce and to please the ordinary opera public, "Idomeneo" never entered the repertory and practically disappeared. In 1919, Hermann Abert could write: "Since then "Idomeneo" has enjoyed the occasional revival but without finding a permanent place for itself in the repertory. Most of the blame for this state of affairs must be borne by the antiquated libretto, whereas Mozart's music has always been praised by connoisseurs" (W.A. MOZART, p. 548, 2007 edition by Cliff Eisen).
After the 1786 private performance in Vienna, "Idomeneo" was not produced anywhere else, until a few random performances in a German text appeared here and there in Germany, where the national habit was to perform Italian operas in German translations, never hesitating to "arrange" the text for local tastes.
Those German translations were finally abandoned, and the Italian original was resurrected in the 20th c., first in Paris (1902, in concert), then Glasgow (1934), and finally in the US at the Tanglewood Music Festival (Lenox, Mass., on Aug. 4, 1947).
The Met recognition of this "monstre sacré" came only recently, on Oct. 14, 1982, with great trepidations about its public reception, James Levine conducting a production staged by the great Mozartian expert Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. It had taken 201 years after its première in Munich for "Idomeneo" to make it to the New York stage. The DVD of this performance on Nov. 6, 1982 is another must for any Mozart fanatic.
I was lucky enough to attend one of those electrifying performances with Pavarotti in the title role, and "Idomeneo" at once became one of my favorite two Mozart operas, balanced by "Cosi Fan Tutte".
[As an aside: However, for this story of Mediterranean sea, sand, and sky, with so much happening on the bright Greek "lido" (seashore), the original scenery consisted of "the views of the sea-port and the temple of Neptune."
I was perplexed that Ponnelle chose to have his characters all dressed in dark costumes copied (as usual for him) from the French Versailles court, and to keep moving them, so bizarrely, in semi-obscurity on a blackened stage.
It certainly emphasized the tragic character of Idomeneo's fate, but it does make us forget that this was supposed to be happening in sun-flooded Ancient Greece. Was this far-out staging a real enhancement for the goal to popularize this newly-resurrected opera to a modern audience? At least it made an impact on the New York public, and the DVD brought this production to the entire world.
To me, the costume of Idomeneo, in full color regalia, shown on the cover of our 1977 Karl Böhm's DG CD box, is much more in character. That was the style that Ponnelle had previously adopted for Mitridate.]
Although finally recognized as the supreme masterpiece of opera seria it really is, "Idomeneo", already in the 18th c. too complex and extreme for the Munich public, and, a fortiori, even more so for the Viennese audiences, has remained a curiosity, with a music still too rich and too complex and far out for the modern public as well.
The cost of producing it is staggering, calling for elite voices, demanding the very best orchestra and chorus, and a pretty sophisticated public, and, so far, "Idomeneo" has not gained a foothold in the general repertory of the largest houses.
Julian Rushton, the expert musicologist who's written an in-depth study "W.A. Mozart: Idomeneo", (Cambridge, 1993), could write in 1996, following Abert, "In the last 30 years, most major companies have produced 'Idomeneo', but as an opera in need of perpetual revival rather than a repertory item." (New Grove Book of Operas, ed. Stanley Sadie, p. 297).
However, Cliff Eisen, in 2007, in his superb edition of the newly translated Abert book, could strike a more optimistic note: "Times change: 'Idomeneo' is now considered one of Mozart's early masterpieces, a view that has given rise not only to an extensive literature (see especially Rushton, 'W.A. Mozart - Idomeneo' and the references there), but also to regular performances at major opera houses. For a short account of the opera's reception in the 19th and early 20th c., see Rushton's book, 83-94" (p. 548, note 76). "Regular" is a slight overstatement, but must be forgiven to a zealot defender of Mozart's music.
It is impossible to disagree with the judgments of such qualified experts as Abert, Einstein, Rushton, and Eisen, on the special importance of this unique opera seria in the context of Mozart's whole career as opera composer. (See Comment 1 below).
And in fact, illustrating the growing interest in this unique opera, every major conductor has risen to the challenge and tried his hand at performing it.
As of 2009, there had been 58 recordings of "Idomeneo", among which quite a few top-grade CDs and DVDs, which remain our best access to this fascinating opera.
Böhm has recorded it 3 times (1956 live, 1976 live, and 1977 studio, our version here); Pritchard 6 times (1956, 1964 twice, 1974, 1977, 1983); James Levine 4 times (1982, 1983, 1991, 1994); Colin Davis 5 times (1968 twice, 1971, 1978, 1991, this last one being selected for the Philips Complete Mozart Edition, with Francisco Araiza in top voice as Idomeneo).
There are other well-regarded recordings by Fritz Busch, Ferenc Fricsay, Peter Maag, Charles Mackerras, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, John Eliot Gardiner, Rene Jacobs, etc. Comparing all those 58 recordings, each one with superb singers and first-class orchestras, is an immense undertaking.
Nonetheless, we can rest reasonably assured that this Böhm Dresden version of 1977, so brilliantly performed and so masterfully conducted, certainly figures as one of the very best incarnations of "Idomeneo".
ROO BOOKAROO
May 27, 2015
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