Roland Schimmelpfennig

Triumphant, Idomeneus returns home from the Trojan War with his fleet. But shortly before Crete seventy-nine of his eighty ships sink. In despair Idomeneus invokes the sea. For his survival he promises to sacrifice the first living being that will cross his path in Crete. He doesn’t anticipate yet that it will be his son Idamantes. In Mozart’s opera Idomeneo Idamantes has the possibility to fight for his life and thereby soothe the oracle. On the basis of the same promise of sacrifice, Roland Schimmelpfennig plays through the variations of the Idomeneus saga which go from blood-drenched drama to seemingly peaceful ending. In changing choric compositions, men and women tell of the homecoming of the king, of the illusion of purchased happiness and the inevitable tragic outcome. Thus a myth of possibilities is told with chosen simplicity and precise beauty. A reflection on the saving temptation of the moment which can obscure the sight to that which follows. And what remains is the hope for a turn for the better, a hope for the forgiving god from Mozart’s opera. Tenderly and yet following the unrelenting law of the gods, Roland Schimmelpfennig takeson this king and decides, after some pros and cons, to let him have his last will. Even if only in a figurative sense.