A FABULOUS NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Last night I went to see Idomeneo at the Theater am Wien. It was a Staatsoper production but performed at this other little theater where Beethoven’s Fidelio had its premiere. The production was super, with a very stark set shaped like a Greek amphitheater. The costumes were sort of archetypal mythic, except for the chorus who, when they had the plague at the beginning, looked like Star Trek characters with pasty white faces and bald heads. The high priest ended up looking sort of like a whey-faced Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. It was actually very effective. The singing was great, especially the gal who played Idamante. This is in contrast to Mozart’s original Idamante, a castrato named Vincezo dal Prato; Mozart writes to his father that in the rehearsals he (Mozart) had to sing the entire part along with him because Vincenzo was completely hopeless.

Here are some photos of us enjoying ourselves. We went out beforehand to a fabulous restaurant called the Berg Café! The waiters all had tight t-shirts with "Berg" written in a bold red scrawl (it was sort of the Vienna equivalent of Café Septieme). After the opera, we went to the Imperial Hotel for smart cocktails. (see below) Richard Wagner stayed here with his family for a couple of months, and probably left without paying.

So I learned a bit more from Pete about Mozart’s violin playing and have been reading about Leopold’s own childhood. I don’t really have time to go to the Freud museum today, and all my colleagues want to wait and go on Sunday when there are some erotic Andy Warhol films playing there. Pete really appreciated the Haydn book title, by the way. He is going down to visit Santa Fe Opera later on in July, even though he is not playing in the orchestra this summer, and is going to see John Fiore conduct Salome!




Of course Pete and I had to pay homage to the greatest maestro the world has ever known (see left).


On a visit Wolfgang made to Salzburg in 1783, the family sang the quartet from Idomeneo, in which Idamante has to agree to exile himself from Crete (his home) in order to escape being sacrificed by his father. According to Constanze, Wolfgang was “so overcome that he burst into tears and quit the chamber.” Hadn’t Mozart himself escaped from Salzburg in order to escape being “sacrificed” by his own father?

In 1775 Mozart wrote his fifth and last violin concerto. He wrote a letter to his father saying how well it went but Leopold replied with something to the effect, “well, if you practiced more you’d be as good as those Italians.” At this, Mozart quit playing the violin and never wrote another violin concerto. Pete says that as a violinist he wishes he could go back in time and tell Leopold to lay off so his son would have written more violin concertos. Of course, Leopold himself had a bad relationship with his own mother, who didn’t want him to leave Augsburg for Salzburg, and never approved of his marriage to Mozart’s mother. Leopold had “let the family” down by dropping out of University (well, being kicked out, actually) and becoming a musician. His father died but he had to get away from the demands of his mother that he “sacrifice” himself.

I don’t know how this all really relates to Idomeneo except that we had a fabulous time! And now I’m off to Venice! Can you believe it?