Idomeneo

Idomeneo premiered on January 29, 1781, at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich. Mozart was 24 years old at the time, and the opera was commissioned by the Elector of Bavaria for the Munich Carnival season.

The opera is based on the ancient Greek myth of Idomeneus, King of Crete, who after surviving a shipwreck vows to sacrifice the first person he encounters on shore — only to discover it is his own son, Idamante. The Italian libretto by Giambattista Varesco draws on classical sources and a earlier French tragédie lyrique by Antoine Danchet.

The principal roles are Idomeneo (tenor), King of Crete; Idamante (originally a castrato role, now typically sung by a mezzo-soprano or tenor), his son; Ilia (soprano), a Trojan princess; and Elettra (soprano), daughter of Agamemnon. The interactions among these four characters drive the drama's themes of love, sacrifice, and divine intervention.

Idomeneo is an opera seria, a more formal and classically structured genre than the comic operas Mozart would later write with Lorenzo da Ponte. However, it shows Mozart already breaking free of opera seria conventions with deeply characterized music for each principal and innovative ensemble writing, which is why it is often called his first mature opera.