Thanks to the Malmo experience, I have improved my knowledge in the Swedish language, by adding two idioms to my vocabulary: "Kungen av Creta" means "Il Re di Creta", i.e. "The King of Crete" ("på Stockholm" = "at/in Stockholm") and to me it represents the second opera of Mozart`s which I attend for the first time at the Drottningholms Slottsteater, the Royal Drottingholms Palace Theatre in Stockholm! One year before that, I had watched "The Clemency of Titus", also an opera which I had not attended until then, a show which I am going to refer to in the following paragraphs.

For those who have never been in Stockholm before, there are a lot of things to mention, but there are not so many new things for those who have already visited the city. The locals separate its name in two syllables, strongly stressing the "h", and the first letter is "s" as in "sun", and not "s" as in "shin", like we tend to pronounce it. The result reads out "Stoc-Holm". It is very expensive; for instance, one subway ride costs 4, 5 EUR (compared to 1, 5 EUR in Rome and 0, 45 EUR in Bucharest, 10 times cheaper than there! ). Speaking of subways, there are a few stations which are real works of art, and which make must-see sight for tourists, especially since a ticket costs half as much as the entrance ticket to the Royal Palace. :)

I consider the capital city of Sweden to be the most beautiful city in Scandinavia, and if this is only a personal opinion, it being the largest city there is indisputable; it is unofficially considered by the Suedes to be the Capital of Scandinavia. Stockholm spreads over 14 islands, thus carrying the non-exagerated nickname of "The Venice of the North". it is also an important harbor, although it may come as a surprise that it is not the biggest harbor in Scandinavia, a title that goes to Goteborg, a better placed city in regards to fair trading with Europe.

Moving the focus on other cities, I would like to make a little recommendation concerning a city that I have visited before the show, Uppsala (read "Up-sola"), a partner city of Craiova`s, which is situated 70 km north of Stockholm (a 40-minute train ride). Therein stands the oldest University in Scandinavia! However, this is not what I was going to recommend, and neither is the city itself, which is small and cosy in a nutshell, but rather the Uppsala cathedral, which looks... bewildering! It is Scandinavia`s largest cathedral (I did a bit of research and found out that it measures 120 m in height), but "the largest" does not necessarily mean "the most beautiful", although, again, it is absolutely bewildering.

Drottningholms is the royal summer palace and it has its own little theatre where opera shows take place, as well. Getting from the city center to Drottningholms can be trivial: you take the subway and then a bus, but it can also turn into a little adventure when, at rush hour, the capital city of Sweden resembles... Bucharest. Because, after having gotten out of the subway station, I had a 10-minute trip by bus to make, but the road was exactly the way it is here, there was a traffic jam, so it took 50 minutes to get there instead! This was the reason for which I got there late, I was not allowed to enter the hall anymore (not even "upstairs"), so... I missed the show!

I would not have had anything to write about now if the organisers hadn`t been so kind as to change my ticket for the show that was going to take place two days later, and this after having offered me a royal cup of tea :-) . Therefore, I returned with pleasure into the small "royal" Swedish theater, and this time earlier.

One year ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the medieval royal court theatre feeling which the theatre of Drottningholms offers. I, of course, revelled in it once more, but this time there was something that I did not like: modern suits, generally office suits, in which the opera was mounted. Thus, the setting loomed like "back in the days", the curtain looked like a painting, the orchestra had little space and it was made out of 27 players in the pit, plus 3 at the balcony (or 0 or 4 during some parts of the opera) plus the conductor, standing in the middle this time, not at the edge, like last time. It was sung in Italian, so I didn`t need to make us of my "vast" knowledge of Swedish.

The show begins with a child on whose head somebody places a crown. His father, Idomeneo, leaves for the war of Troy, and the child is the one who is assigned to rule in his stead.

The fighters are also dressed in modern suits the colour of blue jeans (trousers or knee-long skirts + tank tops), but they do fit in with the background, although it is old fashioned, with lateral decorations similar to those from "The Clemency of Titus", resembling some drawings which change very quickly. While there is singing, the fighters stand still, their eyes are still, too, and this lasts for minutes at a time.

The plot of the opera, in short, consists of Idomeneo`s return from war without being able to find his way home, so he promises the god of seafaring, Poseidon/Neptune, that he would offer him as a sacrifice the first person that he would meet on his way home.

The role of Idamante, Idomeneo`s sun, is acted by a woman - or a girl, to be accurate - who has a very nice voice, and whose demeanor and mimic reminded me a little of Michael Jackson in the "They Don`t Care About Us" video. On stage there is a pregnant woman, as well, and Idamante tells her he loves her. More interesting is how I figured this out and how weirdly or fascinatingly the brain can function sometimes, by saving data that come out of nowhere! My eyes stopped out of reflex (another wierd thing, since I knew that it will be written in Swedish) at the translation panel, placed in the upper part of the stage, live everywhere else, and there were the words "Jag askar dig", which I had known meant "I love you" ever since I was in high school.

The warriors dress in street clothes, for the war, I suppose. Although I don`t think so and I am not sure that the director thought of that, I like the idea that the street might be looked upon as a war.

Enter a bimbo dressed in red, probably the king`s wife. I am saying "bimbo" because she wears very colourful make up, her lips are blazing red and the dress is even more blazing red. Yet she has a nice full voice, and good mimic. At some point she starts scratching several parts of her body (it was part of the staging) and I heard some faint laughter from the audience, so I started thinking what it would have been like, had the show taken place in England, where people laugh a lot more easily, or in Germany, where people have to be tickled and even told this was a joke, so that they laugh. (Was I mean? :-) )

The storm. Quick change of setting, clouds take over the stage. The god of seafaring, Poseidon/Neptune, and the king of Crete, Idomeneo, rise from a hatch in the floor and they both wear deep green working overalls and protection helmets. The god overthrows the man on the floor and threatens him with a double-bladed axe, just like the one Mihai Viteazul had. There follows a new quick change in setting, the result being in a ballroom. The people at the party wear pink, magenta and deep orange costumes and dresses, very well framed by the background, although the tailoring is rather modern. Enter the god, wearing a sock on his head, blood dripping from his crown over his face, to his neck, like after a blow to the head with an axe. There is blodd on his hands, too, but when touching the king, the latter does not get his hands dirty, prof that the blood was either clotted, or fake. Next to the god, there is Idamante, and Idomeneo has gone mad, throwing objects at them. The god seems to be a vision, not only because no object seems to touch him, but also because nobody except for the king seems to be seeing him.

Music composed by: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Giambattista Varesco
Director: Tobias Theorell
Scenography si costumes: Magdalena Åberg
Lights: Torben Lendorph
Conductor: Lawrence Renes

Idomeneo, King of Crete: Jonas Degerfeldt
Idamante, his son: Katija Dragojevic
Ilia: Marianne Hellgren Staykov
Elettra: Malin Byström
Arbace: Klas Hedlund
The Colonel: Daniel Ralphsson
The Oraclel: John Erik Eleby

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