"Padre Germani Addio", (<em>Idomeneo</em>, 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756–1791)

Performed by Laura Robertson '23

This aria is from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo and is sung by the Trojan princess Ilia. In this aria, Ilia is conflicted; she resents Greece for the fall of her father in the Trojan War but finds herself infatuated with a Greek prince. It reminds me of what I see as a similar contradiction in Romare Bearden’s Fall of Troy. I interpret Bearden’s inclusion of Black figures in this foundational Greek myth as a rejection of the exclusion of Black people from the “Western” canon of art and literature. It seems to me that Bearden is both validating the “Western” canon by choosing this myth as his subject and at the same time questioning its validity by reimagining it. Like Ilia’s discordant emotions, for me this painting evokes resentment toward the Greek art-historical monolith while simultaneously validating it. 

David Timm ’22