Idomeneo

 

At the age of 35, most men of any accomplishment are just finding their stride and beginning to build their empires. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 to 5 December 1791), left the world an enormous legacy before ever reaching the age of 36. In his Wikipedia biography, history remembers him as a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era, showing remarkable prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years...”

When Mozart was an up and coming musician, he was commissioned by the elector-prince of Bavaria, Charles Theodore, to write what would be his first mature opera, premiering on January 29, 1781, called Idomeneo. Still regularly performed today, Mozart claimed that of all his work, Idomeneo was his favorite operatic piece. It is an account of Idomeneo, the king of Crete, on his return from the Trojan War. To gain a safe return to shore during a violent storm at sea, Idomeneo vowed to the god of the sea, Poseidon, that he would sacrifice the first living thing he encountered upon reaching dry land. As Idomeneo is successfully able to reach shore and survive, the first person he meets is, unfortunately, his own son Idamante, who had been searching for his father. Shocked at the sight of his son, Idomeneo is dumbfounded and runs away from him without a greeting.

Poseidon is furious over being cheated and sends a sea monster to destroy the entire Cretan fleet. Idomeneo presents himself as a sacrifice to appease Poseidon, but to no avail. To end the destruction brought upon Cretans, Idomeneo finally gives in and agrees to sacrifice Idamante who in the meantime has set off to find and kill the monster... which he succeeds in doing before the time and place are set for his sacrifice by his father. On the fatal day, just as Idomeneo is about to strike his son, Ilia, the captured daughter of the king of Troy who Idamante has fallen in love with, gallantly jumps in front of him out of love. Such courage moved Poseidon enough that he agreed to be appeased if Idomeneo would pass his crown to Idamante, with the Trojan princess Ilia as his queen, to which Idomeneo agreed.

As beautiful as the opera may be, the story is a fabrication.  While it is true that the Cretan fleet was lost at sea for a long period of time due to cosmic events creating earthly storms, and that King Idomeneo was tossed overboard in high seas and nearly drowned, the bargain struck with the god of the sea was subsequently made up to further glorify the heroes of the Trojan War.