Anita Soldh

Idomeneo, King of Crete, has been away from home during the long years of the Trojan War. Idamante, his son, now regent of the island, waits for his return, heralded by the arrival of Trojan prisoners in Crete. One of these prisoners is Ilia, daughter of the murdered King Priam of Troy. Idamante has fallen in love with Ilia, but is loved by Electra, daughter of the Greek King, Agamemnon, who is taken refuge in Crete. The Drottningholm Court Theatre is a tiny and exquisite rococo theatre, the only surviving eighteenth-century theatre in Europe in perfectly-preserved working order. This revised revival of the acclaimed 1986 Drottningholm production by Michael Hampe conducted by Arnold Östman, was staged during the Mozart Bicentenary year.

The young wine god Dionysus returns to his native town of Thebes after having established his cult in the east. In his entourage, he has a run of Bacchantes. Semele, his mother, was distrusted by her family when she claimed that Zeus was the father of her child. Dionysus has come to restore her, revealing his divinity, and require proper worship of the Theban legion.