| Ponnelle's set was striking theater. Idomeneo is musically rich, but strapped into the conventions of opera seria, a type of opera in chich not much thought is given to motivation the arrivals and departures of people on stage. No problem. Ponnelle managed very nicely to tie loose ends together. In the interests of exciting theater he worked the resources of SF faithful old opera house at full throttle, producing, as his piece d resistance, a shipwreck scene that was a real dazzler: smoke spread across the stage, the great mast of a wrecked ship suddenly appeared through the stage floor, choral sounds sprang forth from the organ lofts on both sides of the house, and then, when the dazed king, Idomeneo and his men had safely made their way to the shore, the whole Opera House bust into a flood of light�.The griping chorus toward the end of the second act, in which the people of Crete demand to know who has angered the Gods, looks forward to the demonic Wolf Glen scene of Weber�s Freischutz and �O horror unending� that even more affecting chorus in the third act, has a fateful, slowly striding rhythm that seems like pure Verdi. The seraphic and soothing �Calm is the sea� finds Mozart on the peak of inspiration halfway between Gluck and Berlioz. The eyes of Ponnelle�s giant Neptunian head dominating the city hall masonry of Idomeneo�s palace slowly opened, and an oracular voice came forth with the recipe for a happy ending. (except for Electra)./ pg 350 - 1922-1978 SFO-Bloofield |
