Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Idomeneo, rè di Creta , K. 366 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings, continuo (keyboard and cello), vocal soloists, and chorus The Mannheim court flourished under two suc- cessive Electors of the Palatinate: Karl III Philipp and Karl IV Theodor. By 1723, Karl Philipp had assembled a Kapelle of 53 singers, 12 trumpeters, and two timpanists. This international corps of musicians from Austria, Bohemia, the Low Countries, Italy, and Silesia enhanced court life with sacred and secular music. Karl Theodor built on his uncle’s musical foundations by ex- panding the Kapelle to 78 musicians and by at- tracting some of Europe’s finest performers and most innovative composers. The Mannheim court orchestra performed with unprecedented exactitude and novel instrumental effects. In the words of Charles Burney, the eminent English historian: “There are more solo players and good composers in this, than perhaps in any other or- chestra in Europe; it is an army of generals, equally fit to plan a battle, as to fight it.” Those musical splendors lured Wolfgang Ama- deus Mozart to Mannheim during his first semi-independent tour of 1777–78, when he also visited Augsburg, Munich, and Paris in search of career opportunities. In Mannheim, he attended a performance of Ignaz Holzbauer’s Günther von Schwarzburg , a three-act Singspiel in the Ger- man language that he described as “incredibly full of fire.” Mozart longed to compose opera for the electoral court. “Writing operas is now my burning ambition,” he wrote to his father on February 7, 1778, “but they must be French rath- er than German, and Italian rather than either.” Anonymous portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wearing the Order of the Golden Spur (1777) With the extinction of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach in 1777, Karl Theodor also became Elector of Bavaria and undertook the arduous process of consolidating the Mann- heim (Palatinate) and Munich (Bavaria) courts. Some Mannheim musicians joined the Munich Hofkapelle in August and September 1778; oth- ers remained behind in the Rhineland. It was for the unified Munich court ensemble that Karl Theodor commissioned Mozart to write an opera for the 1781 Carnival season. Joseph An- ton Seeau, the intendant at the Residenztheater (also called the Cuvilliés), officially extended the commission and probably assigned the op- era’s subject as well— Idomenée , a French tragédie-lyrique by Antoine Danchet. Mozart invited Abbate Giovanni Battista Varesco, the Salzburg court chaplain, to prepare an Italian translation. Two versions of the libretto, one in Italian and the other in German, appeared be- fore the first performance. Mozart toured with his mother for the first time while his father, Leopold, remained behind at the Salzburg court. The elaborate correspon- dence between Wolfgang and Leopold, his usu- al traveling companion and artistic confidant, provided remarkable insight into the creative process as they deliberated every dramatic nu- ance and musical detail. Mozart hoped that a successful operatic production would result in a court appointment in Munich. Karl Theodor’s comments after attending rehearsals raised his hopes: “This opera will be charming and can- not fail to do you honor” and “Who would have believed that such great things could lodge in so small a head!” Mozart also wrote his father that the Elector continued to praise his work to “everyone with whom he conversed,” allegedly exclaiming that “No music has ever made such an impression on me. It is magnificent music.” Despite these compliments, Karl Theodor failed to extend the anticipated court appointment. Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria by Anna Dorothea Therbusch (1763) This three-act dramma per musica takes place after the Trojan War, although its basic conflict between a father’s love and the moral obliga- tion to sacrifice his child is found in many sto- ries through the ages, such as the biblical pairs Jephthah/his only daughter and Abraham/Isaac. Mozart scholar Kurt Kramer detects Masonic themes in the disparate relationships of the four principal characters. Idomeneo and Idamante undergo a trial by the god Neptune, compara- ble to Tamino and Papageno’s ordeal in Mozart’s most familiar “Masonic” composition— Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). A great transfor- mation occurs when father and son confront the bargain with Neptune: their roles reverse, and Idamante becomes king. Kramer sees the two women, Ilia and Elettra, on opposite sides of vir- tue. Ilia represents hope, and Elettra despair. Ilia offers herself as a selfless sacrifice, Elettra con- siders selfish suicide. The two lovers, Idamante and Ilia, form a final symbolic pairing, each will- ing to give his/her life for the other, like Pamina and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte . If there is validity to the Masonic theory, then Varesco and Mozart needed to proceed with care. The Bavarian Illuminati (Order of the Illu- minati), an organization loosely modeled on Freemasonry, had been founded in Ingolstadt, Upper Bavaria, on May 1, 1776. The liber- al-minded Karl Theodor tolerated the popular Illuminati during the early years of his reign. However, their growing political influence, al- leged radical religious viewpoints, and determi- nation to undermine the existing political order provoked Karl Theodor to suppress all secret societies through a series of edicts in 1784–85. Overture. Mozart’s use of musical gesture ef- fectively establishes the scene. A regal fanfare prepares the appearance of Idomeneo, King of Crete. Moments later, an ominous undulating string figure emulates the roiling sea that pitch- es his ship about on its return from Troy; else- where in the opera, this theme is associated with prince Idamante and his impending doom. Title page of Idomeneo RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 18, 2024 68