The only Mozart operas I have ever heard have been the three DaPonte operas and the Magic Flute. Since Vera wanted to go to hear Mozart's "Idomeneo", I decided to go. "Idomeneo" is a opera seria; that is what Mozart was commissioned to write. For those not familiar with the genre, it was a kind of opera that focused on serious dramatic subjects (usually the ancient Greeks), with a fairly rigid form, mostly a series of solo arias with virtuoso displays of singing. Solo singing took preference over dramatic necessity. Handel's operas are the most famous opera seria.
Not surprisingly, Mozart transformed opera seria into something Mozartian. The opera was superb, featuring some of the best Mozart music I have ever heard. There are people who sometimes claim that "Idomeno" is his best opera. I wouldn't go that far, but it certainly has extraordinary moments. One very interesting thing Mozart does is to write orchestral recitative, where the sung dialog is accompanied by very expressive short bits of orchestral music. On the whole, though, the opera is not nearly as tight as the DaPonte operas; some of the arias go on for too long, and the libretto has its unwieldy moments, and the whole thing was over just barely before midnight. The singers were all excellent in their very demanding roles, and the orchestra under James Levine was superb. I had thought that Levine was near the end of his conducting career a year ago, but he seems to have regained physical control, and few people know more about conducting Mozart than he does. There were some moments of imprecision, but that did not diminish the overall effectiveness of the performance.
A week later, we went to hear Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio", which is not often done. Beethoven was not an opera composer and his opera was the result of a long and arduous struggle. It's not really a successful opera in the conventional sense; it's really a curious hybrid of Beethoven's instrumental style of composing and the conventions of opera. And you end up listening to it in that way, which is nevertheless very interesting. The singers were mostly excellent, but for once I found the performance of the Met orchestra to be substandard. There was very little in the way of dynamic nuance, and the orchestra seemed to be operating mostly in a fortissimo mode.
The last scene of the opera is very special; a heroic ode to liberty and freedom with soloists, choir and orchestra. And yes, it sounds very much like the last movement of the 9th symphony. With the newly liberated prisoners and the villagers celebrating on stage, it was certainly music to cheer for.
