Idomeneo is a 181-minute television film of the Metropolitan Opera's first staging of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1781 opera Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante, produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and performed by a cast headed by John Alexander, Hildegard Behrens, Ileana Cotrubaș, Luciano Pavarotti and Frederica von Stade under the direction of James Levine.

Later writings relate that his voyage was afflicted by a violent storm, amidst which he vowed to Poseidon, the god of the sea, that if he was allowed to set foot on Crete again, he would sacrifice the first living thing that he encountered there.

Poseidon granted his wish, but when his ship finally reached his island's shore, the first creature that he met was his son, Idamantes.

[1][2] In 1780, while the 24-year-old Mozart was in the employment of Hieronymus von Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, he received a commission from the court of Karl Theodor, Prince-elector and Duke of Bavaria, to write an opera to be performed in Munich during the carnival season of 1781.

Mozart based his composition upon a treatment of the legend that had been premiered in Paris in the carnival season of 1712: the tragédie lyrique Idoménée, which had a text by Antoine Danchet and music by André Campra.

Giambattista Varesco, a chaplain at the Salzburg court, reshaped Danchet's libretto into a different text that was richer than Idomenée in the dramatic possibilities that Mozart craved, and which culminated in a happier ending.

Such difficulties did not prevent Mozart from enjoying his work on his opera greatly, partly because the orchestra at Karl Theodor's court, which had accompanied the Prince to Munich after previously serving him in Mannheim, was the most expert in all Germany.

Mozart's widow told a biographer that her husband's time in Munich had been the happiest of his life, and had left him with an abiding affection for the fruit of his labours there.

[3][4] With Mozart on the podium, Idomeneo was premiered in the court theatre of the Munich Residenz on 29 January 1781, and repeated on 3 February and 3 March.

They agree to send Idamante abroad as an escort accompanying Elettra on a mission to Argos to claim her father's crown.

Meeting Ilia, Idomeneo realizes that she is in love with Idamante and that her feelings are reciprocated, and grieves over the misery that his vow to Poseidon will entail for her as well as for himself.

The Met's new staging of the work – the first in its 99-year history – was among the finest of its recent offerings, notable for its "sheer depth of vocal talent, grasp of the grand style and impressive décor".

[5] The cast was a strong one, with Hildegard Behrens incandescent as Elettra and Timothy Jenkins a stentorian High Priest ("although his upper notes tended to be nasal and strained").

Among his deviations from it were his omission of Idamante's act three aria "No la morte" and his cutting of the lengthy ballet that Mozart had composed as a finale.

He set the opera amidst what looked like the crumbling remains of buildings constructed by the ancient Greeks, and yet dressed his singers in apparel reminiscent of the eighteenth century.

Soloists were required to strike histrionic poses of pain, regret or joy after being moved hither and thither like pieces on a chess board.

Frederica von Stade was "marvellously convincing" as the youthful prince (a part initially written for a castrato and later revised for a tenor).

Hildegard Behrens "flung herself into the villainous role of Elettra with vocal and dramatic abandon, actually stealing the last act from under Mr Pavarotti's nose".

Nevertheless, he sang with a degree of aristocratic suavity that was suitable for a sovereign, "and if he slid into tones occasionally, there was no denying that a major voice was on display".

His combination of set designs evoking classical times and rococo costumes and wigs was a "tired cliché" that created "an aura of suffocating decadence that contradicts the freshness, immediacy, and dramatic brilliance of Mozart's score at every turn".

Elettra was a "comic-strip harridan", Ilia like "a simpering ninny", Idamante like "a petulant page boy" and Idomeneo like "an ineffectual board-room president".

Hildegard Behrens's glowing persona was spoiled by her "inability to sing a smooth legato line" and a tone that was "unduly raucous".

Luciano Pavarotti's performance was conscientious, but compromised by clumsy phrasing, breathy whispering, difficulty with ornamentation and heavy reliance on the prompter.

In 1982, Pioneer Artists issued it on a pair of Extended Play CLV (constant linear velocity) Laserdiscs (catalogue number PA-85-134), with English subtitles and CX stereo audio.

[13] In 2000, Pioneer Classics issued the film on a DVD (catalogue number PC-11498D) with optional English subtitles and Dolby Digital compressed stereo audio.

[3] In 2006, Deutsche Grammophon supplanted Pioneer's DVD with a two-disc Region 0 release (catalogue number 00440-073-4234) providing audio in uncompressed PCM stereo and in ersatz 5.1-channel surround sound DTS and Dolby Digital upmixes synthesized by Emil Berliner Studios with their AMSI II (Ambient Surround Imaging) technology.