A contradictory figure caught the 25 year old composer’s imagination: his characters move in situations with existential boundaries. In his »Sturm und Drang« opera Idomeneo Mozart conjures the power of nature to surge up in the orchestra. Superior powers are at play. Idomeneo, King of Crete, is hunted down by Neptune’s fury on his voyage home from Troy. He vows to the gods that he will sacrifice the first creature he meets on land if his life is spared. He survives the storm but, the first person he meets is his son, Idamante. He tries to postpone making the sacrifice, which brings new catastrophies on himself and his people. He explains what happened. Idamante offers himself as a sacrifice but is spared by the god, who stipulates that Idomeneo must abdicate in favour of his son.
    When Mozart wrote the opera in the summer of 1780 his score was influenced by many styles and contemporaries and his desire to write another opera seria, a stipulation from the court in Munich. Idomeneo marked a turning point in Mozart’s music: the framework was preserved but, internally, opera seria’s rigid structure was broken entirely. This may not be Mozart’s most popular opera but it is certainly the »wildest«.