[Met Performance] CID:283180



Idomeneo
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, January 20, 1986




Idomeneo (15)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Giambattista Varesco
Idomeneo
David Rendall

Ilia
Linda Zoghby

Idamante
Frederica von Stade

Elettra
Carol Vaness

Arbace
John Alexander

High Priest
Timothy Jenkins

Voice of Neptune
Richard J. Clark

Woman
Loretta Di Franco

Woman
Batyah Godfrey Ben-David

Soldier
Charles Anthony

Soldier
David Bernard


Conductor
Jeffrey Tate







Review 1:

Review of Martin Mayer in Opera

"Idomeneo" was the joy, with special thanks to Jeffrey Tate, who managed to be brisk and businesslike and Mozartean all at once. The orchestra played beautifully for him, and the balance in the ensembles, especially in the wonderful quartet before Idamante leaves to slay the sea monster, was emotionally as well as musically satisfying. The production is Ponnelle's best, ruins and black-and-white both correct for once, properly dominated by a giant god's head that moves back and forth on the stage and spews out Idomeneo and company in the first act. When new two years ago the work was somewhat overwhelmed, by Pavarotti (Idomeneo), Behrens (Elettra) and Cotrubas (Ilia), which left Frederica von Stade rather small-scale as Idamante. With David Rendall, Carol Vaness and Linda Zoghby in their place, von Stade came into her own, both vocally and physically part of the single sensibility that animated the performance. Rendall I thought excellent, given the scale (which is not wrong for the work, though arguably a little small for the Met). The decision to cut ldomeneo's "Torna la pace" at the end I took not as a criticism of Rendall's work but as a sensible way to shorten what remains, as Mozart knew, a very long act; and the aria itself is less fine than Arbace's aria, the obvious alternative cut.

Vaness sang very well, with that special wind-instrument sound Mozart demands. Zoghby's voice, which I had not heard in several years, has been worked into something a little larger than it was, still stunningly beautiful at the top, but now with a troublesome touch of metal in the B-C-D range in the middle. January 20 was only her second performance in the role, and she still lacks authority in it; and between them Cotrubas and Ponelle left a mess that this year's director Leslie Koenig was

unable to remedy in the staging of "Zeffiretti lusinghieri," in Act 3. Vaness has, incidentally, a lovely, easy trill. The other feat of vocalism was John Alexander's Arbace, even more remarkable this year than it was in 1982.



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