Programme 12/5 — 4/6

Tickets for performances at the National Theatre are available at the relevant box offices.

In the 2009/10 season the Mozart cycle will be extended by Idomeneo, an opera seria (“serious opera”) little known and seldom staged in our country. The composer wrote it in 1780 and 1781 upon the commission of the Munich court. Idomeneo has appeared on just one occasion in the history of the National Theatre: in 1931 in the period of the open dramaturgy of the then Artistic Director of Opera Otakar Ostrčil. Mozart’s opera treats a mythological theme from the dramatically fertile post-Trojan War period. It is inspired by a typical ancient conflict between human hubris and fate, a game that humans are for ever destined to lose. When his life is threatened at sea, the Cretan King Idomeneo promises Neptune a sacrifice, which will be the first human he encounters on dry land. Yet this turns out to be his own son. Idomeneo’s extremely inner theme will be given stage form by the Franco-Japanese director Yoshi Oida, one of the most famous actors of the legendary director Peter Brooke. Idomeneo is the first production to be explored and conducted by Tomáš Netopil as the new Music Director of the National Theatre Opera Orchestra.