“Idomeneo” is an opera of singular power, one that doesn’t get staged nearly as often as it should. Mozart’s 1781 breakout hit—the work that established him as an opera composer of undeniable brilliance—usually takes a back seat to his later, better-known operas such as “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.”
But that’s no reason to ignore “Idomeneo,” especially when it’s performed with the power and intensity it’s receiving in the San Francisco Opera’s current revival. This new-to San Francisco production, staged by Australian director Lindy Hume and conducted by company music director Eun Sun Kim, makes the impact of this early masterwork feel essential.
At the opening night performance on June 14, all the marks of Mozart’s brilliance were in evidence. The opera begins on the island of Crete, where Idomeneo has returned from the end of the Trojan Wars; his house is open and filled with lines of wretched survivors and refugees, waiting to receive much-needed handouts of food and clothing.
There are other issues just as dire: post-traumatic stress is everywhere. Ilia, daughter of the defeated Trojan King Priam, finds herself dangerously in love with Idomeneo’s son, Prince Idamante – and hatred for her father’s Greek enemies. Elettra, daughter of King Agamemnon, is also struggling; meanwhile, Idomeneo, in a storm at sea, makes a vow to Neptune to sacrifice the first person he meets when he arrives on land. And that person turns out to be Idamante.
This production, by Michael Yeargan, is set in a sturdy open mansion, an effective base for the opera; the company’s use of projections, by David Bergman and cinematographer Catherine Pettman varied between roiling sea images and on-land views that often bolstered the characters’ emotions, but occasionally seemed unrelated, and even detracted from, the action.
If those visual issues never felt quite resolved, the action onstage was aptly dynamic. Kim, always mindful of the need to create movement and time, to elicit a sense of focused urgency, the opening night performance came to life with thrilling intensity, and the singers responded in kind.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani, a veteran Idomeneo, sang with robust power and dark shadings throughout. Chinese soprano Ying Fang made her impressive company debut as Ilia, singing with lustrous tone and a poised, delicate presence. As Elettra, the Greek princess who loves Idamante, soprano Elza van den Heever provided a dramatically focused, thrilling intensity to the character’s unhinged music.
The cast was superb in every role. Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack and tenor Alek Shrader, who are husband and wife offstage, sang with their customary elegance, Mack as Idamante, and Shrader as the King’s confidante, Arbace; and there were essential contributions from tenor Samuel White (the High Priest of Neptune) and bass-baritone Jongwon Han (Voice of the Oracle.)
A quartet of Adler Fellows—sopranos Georgiana Adams and Mary Hoskins as Cretan Women, tenor Samuel White (the High Priest of Neptune and Trojan Man) and Olivier Zerouali (Trojan Man)—rounded out the cast, and John Keene’s San Francisco Opera Chorus sang with focused unity.
Just as Mozart’s operas never fail to bring new insight and understanding to the human condition, this thrilling production of “Idomeneo” shows us again the terrible cost of war, even for kings. Watching these characters seeing their future chances die, you fear for them even as you know the worst is coming. Maybe that’s the point: the characters of “Idomeneo” may be royalty. But in the end, they’re only human.
San Francisco Opera’s “Idomeneo” continues at 7:30 p.m. June 17, June 20 and June 25, and 2 p.m. June 22 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. For tickets ($28-$438; $27.50 for June 20 livestream), call (415) 864-3330 or visit sfopera.com.