Idomeneo
Glyndebourne Touring Opera
New Theatre, 2 & 5.12.03

Peter Sellar’s Idomeneo, Mozart’s complex opera based on a story from the Trojan War, sets out to be contemporary, relevant and extremely modern. With extraordinary abstract staging by Anish Kapoor, performance which marries Greek tragedic posing with contemporary ballet, and up-to-date attitudes toward war and suffering, the current-day relevance is rammed home.

Indomeneo is King of Crete, chief of the Greek Navy. Sea God Neptune has issues with his family; he is grandson of King Minos, whose refusal to sacrifice a perfect white bull led to the whole Minotaur fiasco. On his return from battle, a storm arises; for his safety, he promises to sacrifice the first person he sees. It comes as no surprise that Idomeneo has one adored son, Idamante, and that it is he (or rather she, as the original castrato role is performed exquisitely here by Julianne de Villiers) who meets him. Idamante is in love with Trojan prisoner-of-war Ilia (Marie Arnet, in electric-blue designer burka) and loved by Greek princess Electra (Cara O’Sullivan), who struggles to find the tragedy in being a power-dressing politician’s wife, seething with frustrated blonde ambition. Similarly Peter Brinder, in the title role and New Labour uniform of grey suit and red tie, occasionally suffered under the weight of repetitious, stylised gestures which (echoed by two dancers) performed subtext and commentary, underscoring even more cheerful moments with the horror of war. As the crisis in Crete deepens, sympathy for the main characters withers, despite the show-stopping and deeply involving quartet in the third act. But the price of updating opera is sacrificing the heroes’ concerns to the suffering of the multitude, and it is the chorus that truly shines. Whether writhing beneath the wrath of Neptune, fighting through soldiers to mourn their dead, or shuffling on in the grey, layered, mismatch clothes of refugees to sing pitiously about joy, the story here is the suffering of common people in time of war.

Jeremy Dennis, 02.12.03