One of the less canonic Mozart operas, Idomeneo is a piece that stage directors tend to feel they have a licence to maul. And it was mauled with a vengeance last time around at Covent Garden by Martin Kusej, who pulled that tired old German Regietheater trick of turning everything into a story of totalitarian politics. With the essential wardrobe of dark glasses and long leather coats.
Tim Albery’s line in his new Garsington Opera production thankfully avoids those clichés. Not that it’s conventionally done with togas and a colonnade from the Acropolis. Instead, the major visual interest is provided by two large, abandoned shipping containers, and the costumes are a mix of 18th-century court dress and Peter Grimes. But it’s a seriously thought-through staging in which everything is purposeful.
