IDOMENEO, RE DI CRETA

Opera seria in three acts, in Italian, with Hungarian, English, and Italian subtitles

The Trojan War was such an important historical event that it became one of the main motives of the past 2800 years of European cultural history; its episodes and characters inspired thousands of artists. Mozart’s Idomeneo, re di Creta tells the story of the tired king returning from the Trojan War and the people of Crete as they are life threateningly exposed to the uncontrollable forces of nature. The piece was only played once before in the OPERA, in 1979. About a quarter century had to pass before it found its way back to the Budapest Opera House’s stage, this time directed by András Almási-Tóth, who emphasizes the fight between nature and humanity in a modern context, in which a metropolis is flooded by the sea and nature devours urban life and the human space. Unless the god of sea forgives them…