Idomeneo Production Review Essay

IDOMENEO: Production Review The University Center of the Arts staged a bold production of the acclaimed opera Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it showcased the capacity of the Griffin Hall to present a fully decorated opera rather than a concert that uses nothing more than mere instruments, voices and the audience´s imagination. Instead, the department decided to produce a complete theatrical interpretation of Idomeneo, which worked to varying degrees. Branching off from a traditional aesthetic, the University Center of the Arts focused more on delivering a modernized and symbolically significant technical approach rather than attempting to emulate the traditional aspects to which the opera was first performed. First of all, the production 's vision was …show more content…
I was extremely impressed with the vocal capacity of each actor to sing with such intensity to an audience of this magnitude. The sound design for the vocal performers was professionally maintained throughout the whole show, on the day I went to see it, I did not notice any single hiccup or static. Nevertheless, I did notice a couple of moments coming from the instruments were a couple of notes sounded a bit off, but they were pretty minor. I also enjoyed the choice of having a lot of darkness in some scenes which added to the sense of gloominess which they were seemingly intending for. Some of the Gobos they used were very well implemented, specially at moments of the show where the scene happened ashore. For the costumes, the production delivered a highly stylized rendition that was seeking to merge many contemporary outfits with robes from ancient Greece with cyberpunk vibe. Unfortunately, I feel that it worked against them, I think that when it came to the costumes, that specific vibe was overblown and it was distracting to see someone sing with such a melodic and beautiful voice while wearing an outfit that looked like The Matrix 's rejected costume concepts. I understand how