Michael Tanner

Curses and blessings

Idomeneo<br /> ENO, in rep until 9 July Lohengrin<br /> City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Idomeneo
ENO, in rep until 9 July

Lohengrin
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mozart’s Idomeneo remains, despite the best efforts of its proselytisers, a connoisseur’s piece. For all its beauties and its emotional power, it is a predominantly static work, and one in which one can’t really care all that much about what happens to the central sympathetic characters — think of the Da Ponte operas and of Die Zauberflöte, by contrast, and the point is made.

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