Idomeneo, Royal Opera House

Mozart's 'Idomeneo' performs at the Royal Opera House this November

Booking for Friends of Covent Garden opens soon, and one of the hottest tickets in town this year will be veteran Austrian director Martin Kušej’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Idomeneo, it is one of Mozart’s earliest masterpieces, completed and performed when the composer was just 25 years old. Despite the composer’s tender years, Idomeneo is seen by many as a watershed moment in the development of Mozart’s mature style. The plot is suitably weighty for such a coming-of-age work: it tells the story of Idomeneo, the King of Crete, whom having promised to the gods that he will sacrifice the first person he sees in exchange for a safe passage home from the Trojan War, is required to sacrifice his own son, Idamante. As you may have gathered from the story, the emotional scope of this piece is extraordinary, and we look forward to seeing a star-turn from Matthew Polenzani as the conflicted eponymous hero.

With its French text, along with its marches and ballets, Idomeneo is seen by many to draw inspiration from over the channel. In a deft little piece of programming, The Royal Opera have updated this French connection by enlisting French conductor Marc Minkowski to take up the baton. Minkowski is a specialist in the performance of French Baroque Opera, from giants Lully and Rameau, to the lesser-known Mouret and Marais. We are particularly looking forward to hearing Minkowski’s interpretation of Idomeneo, an opera so indebted to the French style. To be sure, Minkowski knows Idomeneo before, having conducted a highly successful production at the Opéra National de Paris in 1996. Minkowski is joined by the ever-reliable Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, whose flexibility is key to the successful realization of operas such as Idomeneo.

This production is bound to be of great interest to many punters, so we would advise you to snap up tickets as soon as they go on sale. Idomeneo promises its audiences a gripping story and dazzling score, rendered in three dimensions by a fantastically experienced and sensitive group of interpreters. It is not to be missed.