Poveri cristi - Ascanio Celestini

On January 24, 27, and 29 and February 1, 2026, at the Teatro Comunale Nouveau in Bologna, Idomeneo, a musical drama in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is staged.

“Fuor del mar ho un mare in seno che del primo è più funesto” sings Idomeneo, seized by the most harrowing anguish: caught in the grip of a terrible storm, he has vowed to the god Neptune, in exchange for his salvation, to sacrifice the first human being he would encounter upon reaching dry land. But the first person to run toward him is his only son, Idamante.
When Idomeneo, King of Crete, premieres in Munich on January 29, 1781, Mozart has turned twenty-five just two days earlier. He already has a lifetime as a musician behind him, while his life as a man is only just beginning, yet he is able to fully inhabit this mature drama of a ruler and a parent.

It is also, on the other hand, the drama of a new generation crushed by the shadow and legacy of their fathers. Idamante, heir to the throne and designated victim, loves and is loved by Ilia; yet he is the son of a victorious Achaean commander, while she is a war captive as the daughter of the Trojan king Priam. Elettra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is consumed by jealousy and passion for Idamante. All are victims of untamable emotions and of a fate too great. All are human.

And here Mozart is Mozart: the genius capable of translating humanity into music and transforming the sea into a storm into an inner upheaval, into a psychological drama in the form of myth.

Eight years remain until the Storming of the Bastille: the changing world is reflected in the opera, where monsters appear and the gods can grant—at least on stage—the longed-for peace.