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[Met Performance] CID:306150



Idomeneo
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, October 8, 1991









Review 1:

Review of Martin Mayer in Opera

"Idomeneo" on October 8 was better - indeed the best performance of this opera l have ever seen. The orchestra, which included some of the regular substitutes, gave Levine sounds and phrasing no other orchestra I know could match, and the three women-Hei-Kyung Hong as Ilia, Anne Sofie von Otter as Idamante and Cheryl Studer as Electra, were simply celestial. Nobody, not Miss Horne and not Miss Sutherland, has ever sung a piece of florid music better in my hearing than Miss Studer sang her third-act aria. Anthony Rolfe Johnson in his Met debut role ("vice" Pavarotti, who backed off at the last minute) made a forceful Idomeneo; one recognized listening to him how gratefully Mozart wrote the role for Anton Raaff ). The chorus has come around nicely for Raymond Hughes (the new chorus master) and is regaining its "élan vital."

Both Arbace's third-act aria and Idomeneo's were cut, leaving the work a manageable length and the act a more coherent whole. Lesley Koenig again tightened the staging (this time Ponnelle's; a Ponnelle protégée, she worked with him on the original and has directed every revival). I must say that the more often I hear the piece, the higher my estimation of it goes.

Search by season: 1991-92

Search by title: Idomeneo,



Met careers

• James Levine [Conductor]
• Anthony Rolfe Johnson [Idomeneo]
• Hei-Kyung Hong [Ilia]
• Anne Sofie von Otter [Idamante]
• Cheryl Studer [Elettra]
• Peter Kazaras [Arbace]
• John Horton Murray [High Priest]
• Terry Cook [Voice of Neptune]
• Theresa Cincione [Woman]
• Jane Shaulis [Woman]
• Michael Forest [Soldier]
• Kevin Short [Soldier]