0594Idomeneus

W.A. Mozart, Idomeneo, re di Creta, opera (dramma per musica). Libretto by Giambattista Varesco, after Danchet's text for Campra (1712). Premiered in Munich's Hoftheater 29 Jan 1781.

Idomeneus, a pre-war suitor of Helen, led Cretan ships to Troy and hid inside the Horse at its sack. Vowing rashly to sacrifice to Poseidon "the first thing he should see" upon deliverance from a harrowing storm, his nostos involves the quandry of being greeted by his own son. Though plague keeps him from sacrifice, the Cretans exile Id. to Calabria in S. Italy.

It seems oddly thematic, perhaps, that Odysseus frequently mentions Idomeneus in his false travel narratives: 13.259ff (to Athena), 14.235 (to Eumaeus), 19.178 (to Penelope, . Cf. Od. 3.191, (Nestor to Telemachus).

Netflix offers Analog recording on DVD: James Levine directed the Metropolitan Opera and Chorus, 1982, with Luciano Pavarotti, Ileana Cotrubas, Hildegard Behrens, Frederica von Stade and John Alexander. Deutsche Grammophon, 1985/2006.