May 2001 - Nr. 5
Canadian Opera season closes with Mozart
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
Never having seen a staged performance of Idomeneo I was a bit at a loss as to what I could expect from this heroic opera in 3 acts. The textbooks place Idomeneo as the epitome of the young Mozart’s endeavours in opera seria. The story line is classical, could be a chapter of Homer’s Odysseus. The story is not about Odysseus, but one of his fellow heroes in arms in the war surrounding the conquest of Troy. Unlike Odysseus, who took 10 years to get home only to find his estate and family in disarray, Idomeneo promises to sacrifice the life of the first person he sees once he reaches shore safely. Unfortunately Poseidon will hound Idomeneo for his son’s life, since he was the first individual he laid eyes on after surviving his shipwreck.
Story and style are something very hard to appreciate for modern audiences, but the music itself is the true carrier of the emotional turmoil that translate to anyone who has experienced a serious loss of some sort. Staging poses a real problem. The story asks for the re-enactment of a truly Greek tragedy. And in part I think that is what was attempted here at the COC, but the uninspired set with the only variants being a slightly changing sky and the outline of a ship’s bow in one of the scenes did not make for an ideal setting to allow action to take place on stage. To see Michael Schade reduced to writhing on stage is not anyone’s favourite pastime. And it lies within the singer’s fine professional character and generous nature that he subjected himself to such demeaning instructions.
There was some very good talent in this production of Idomeneo, which would have probably garnered quite excellent reviews if it had been a concert version only. People have certain expectations when they go to see a Mozart opera. Unfortunately, regardless of Mozart’s superior skill even in this early work, this opera never garnered much praise other than for its fine score. The passé form of late baroque opera styling has not much communicated well for a long time and Idomeneo has not been a favourite by any means. Even newer versions and rewrites, (Richard Strauss for instance) have not brought it the success it craves by its deserving score. Only a presentation at the Salzburger Festspiele in 1961-1962 appears to have brought a fortunate turn of favours in the history of Idomeneo performances. The newly finished monumental and broad stage at Salzburg no doubt created the special possibilities for a tragic idea to take flight and translate it into real emotions that could be duplicated by performers and the other creative forces at the festival, as well as the audience.
The
Toronto performances suffered from many an ailment, but it certainly was not
the singing talent, especially not that of Michael Schade, who’s still
growing voice always leaves the promise of an even better performance when
we shall see and hear him next.
