NEW YORK,
June 23, 2017
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Music Director
Emeritus James
Levine conducts an extraordinary ensemble in
Idomeneo, Mozart's early masterpiece of love and
vengeance following the Trojan War on Great
Performances at the Met Sunday, July
16 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check
local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at
12:30 p.m.)
Tenor Matthew Polenzani
sings the title role of the King of Crete, with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote in the trouser role of his noble
son Idamante, soprano Elza van den
Heever as Elettra, and soprano Nadine Sierra as Ilia.
The opera premiered at the Court Theater (now the Cuvilliés
Theater) in Munich in 1781. Like
many stories from Greek myth, Idomeneo explores the
motivations and emotions of humans whose fates seem beyond their
own control. The opera casts these issues within the framework of
the opera seria genre, a stylized format popular in the 18th
century that is characterized by a succession of arias and
recitatives and a cast of noble characters. Long neglected along
with other works of this era, Idomeneo now holds a firm
place in the repertoire as the first of Mozart's operatic
masterpieces.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was the son of a
Salzburg court musician who
exhibited him as a musical prodigy throughout Europe. His achievements in opera, in terms of
beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed.
Giovanni Battista Varesco
(1735–1805) was a poet and the court chaplain of the Principality
of Salzburg, Mozart's place of
employment at the time of Idomeneo.
The opera is set on the island of Crete in the aftermath of the Trojan War. The
tales of this time have provided fertile grounds for creators of
opera, from Monteverdi (Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, 1640)
to Berlioz (Les Troyens, 1863), to Richard Strauss (Die Ägyptische Helena,
1928), to Martin David Levy
(Mourning Becomes Electra, 1967). The era is evocative,
reflecting the confusion of a post-traumatic historical moment.
The New York Times proclaimed
the production as "The Met Opera at its best. A high point of the
season," and observed that "Mr. Levine conducted, drawing a refined
and affecting performance from the great Met orchestra."
The Financial Times, in its five-star review,
proclaimed that "Alice Coote exudes
noble passion" and "Polenzani emerges utterly compelling in the
royal title role." The Huffington Post opined that this was
"(a) richly rewarding night of opera. Magnificent."
Bass-baritone Eric Owens
hosts the broadcast.
Production: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
Set Designer: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
Costume Designer: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
Lighting Designer: Gil
Wechsler. Revival Stage Director:
David Kneuss.
Idomeneo was originally seen live in movie
theaters on March 25 as part of the
groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD series, which transmits
live performances to more than 2,000 movie theaters and performing
arts centers in over 70 countries around the world. The Live in
HD series has reached a record-breaking 22 million viewers
since its inception in 2006.
Great Performances at the Met
is a presentation of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET, one
of America's most prolific and respected public media
providers.
Corporate support for Great Performances at the
Met is provided by Toll Brothers, America's luxury
home builder®. Major funding for the Met Opera presentation is
provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. This Great
Performances presentation is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund,
the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The Philip and Janice
Levin Foundation, The Agnes Varis Trust, and public television
viewers.
For the Met, Barbara Willis
Sweete directs the telecast. David Frost is Music Producer. Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and
Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For
Great Performances, Bill
O'Donnell is Series Producer; David
Horn is Executive Producer.
Visit Great Performances online at
www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information on this and other
Great Performances programs.
About WNET
WNET is
America's flagship PBS station and parent company of
THIRTEEN and WLIW21. WNET
also operates NJTV, the statewide public media
network in New Jersey. Through its
broadcast channels, three cable services (KidsThirteen, Create and
World) and online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts,
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About the Met
THE METROPOLITAN
OPERA is America's leading performing
arts organization and a vibrant home for the world's most creative
and talented artists, including singers, conductors, composers,
orchestra musicians, stage directors, designers, visual artists,
choreographers, and dancers. The company presents more than 200
performances each season of a wide variety of operas, ranging from
early masterpieces to contemporary works. In recent years, the Met
has launched many initiatives designed to make opera more
accessible, most prominently the Live in HD series of cinema
transmissions, which dramatically expands the Met audience by
allowing select performances to be seen in more than 2,000 theaters
in more than 70 countries around the world.
Synopsis:
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