Idomeneo or The Weight of History -W.A.Mozart

Opera in three acts by W. A. Mozart / Libretto by Giambattista Varesco . Following their successful presentation of the operetta Mikado at the Alternative Stage of the National Greek Opera, the Rafi Music Theatre Company, one of the most active theatre companies in Greece, collaborates with Amalia Bennett. On commission by the Company, Bennett directs Mozart’s rarely performed masterpiece Idomeneo. Visual artist Petros Touloudis will design the sets and costumes. Written in 1871, Idomeneo is Mozart’s first mature work. Inspired by Metastasio’s poetry and Gluck’s elegant classicism, the opera revolves around the fall of Troy and the travails of the eponymous young king of Crete. Idomeneo tackles the issue of generation gap and how each generation deals with history and the past. Several artists have been inspired by the opera. Richard Strauss musically adapted the opera in 1931. In 2008, the contemporary German poet Roland Schimmelpfennig wrote the performance/poem Idomeneus. Mozart’s Idomeneo has been presented in Greece twice: first, in 1955, in a Greek National Opera production, and also in 2011, in concertate form by Jérémie Rhorer’s music ensemble. With Greek surtitles