My favorite parts: Idomeneo
BORES BORES BORES
Idomeneo is probably one of my favorite operas. I consider it mainstream for opera-lovers, maybe a bit obscure for the mainstream audience. It's brought up in the play Amadeus, even if its composer disparages it (I bring this up in another blog post:
I don’t understand you! You’re all up on perches, but it doesn’t hide your arse-holes! You don’t give a shit about gods and heroes! If you are honest-each one of you-which of you isn’t more at home with his hairdresser than Hercules? Our your stupid Danaius, Herr Salieri, come to that! Or mine-mine! Idomeneo, King of Crete! All those anguished antiques! They’re all bores! Bores, bores, bores
There are so many great musical moments in the opera. Act 1 has "Non ho copa" and "Nettuno s'onori" (one of my favorite choral moments in all of opera), just bangers after bangers. It's weird that my favorite parts is actually a recitative (sung dialogue; not a song).
Baby don't hurt me
The story goes as follows: After Troy fall, Ilia the Trojan princess is taken prisoner by Idamante, son of Idomeneo and prince of Crete. They fall in love, but the princess spurns his affection. Drama happens and it is Act 3 when Idamante must go kill the sea-monster that plagues his home.
Ilia has softened her stance on the Prince of Crete and is writing a letter to confess her love. Idamante visits her for a last goodbye. Ilia starts to confess her affection And Idamante says this beautiful line in response. It's not an aria, I want to remind you, it's just sung dialogue. But something about it is... just magic:
Odo? o sol quel, che brama
Finge l'udito, o pure il grand'ardore
M'agita i sensi, e il cor lusinga oppresso
Un dolce sogno?
Do I hear aright?
Or does my hearing only imagine
what it longs for?
Or does my ardent passion
excite my senses so that a sweet dream
flatters my oppressed heart?
Falling in love over and over again
Perhaps it's my own experience of yearning for someone who does not love you back. A maybe nearly universal experience for youths. An entirely universal experience if you're gay. But it's just the ethereal nature of it, something about the musical accompaniment I can't explain.
I have heard many, many different interpretations of this phrase.
Cecilia Bartoli sings it so softly and almost timidly. It's as if her Idamante is terrified that singing it out loud will break the illusion. Others have sang it fast, to mimic the way your heart is trying to burst out of your chest from pure joy. The magic of opera, for me, is to fall in love with a section... Then to fall in love and love - over and over. Every time you hear it, it's different. A different emphasis. A lighter touch on certain notes. The pace. The accent. Even if you don't agree with an interpretation, you love it for reminding you why you love your favorite interpretation.
It's my favorite part in Idomeneo. It's also the phrase that I really want to get a tattoo of.