As to the sum received by Mozart in payment for "Idomeneo" we know nothing; but it cannot have been a large one, or L. Mozart would not have written (December 11, 1780): "How about the score? will it not be copied? You must be careful as to this, for _with such a payment the score cannot be given up_." To which Wolfgang answered (December 16, 1780): "I made no ceremony as to the copying of the score, but spoke openly on the subject to the Count. It was always the custom in Mannheim (where the kapellmeister was well paid besides) to give up the score to the composer." The original score, in three volumes, is written in a very neat but rapid hand, with scarcely any alterations except a few in the recitatives. As usual, the different numbers are written separately and then put together; the double-bass part was written larger, as in other scores, for the convenience of the bass-player at the clavier. The score was to have been printed at the time, as appears from a letter of L. Mozart to Breitkopf (August 10, 1781): "We were advised to publish the opera, printed or engraved, either in full score or clavier score. Subscribers were promised for some thirty copies, among whom was his highness Prince Max of Zweibrücken, but my son's journey to Vienna and the intervening events caused us to postpone the whole affair." The music for the ballet which was given with "Idomeneo" has not yet been printed (367 K.). Mozart seems to have set great value on "Idomeneo" {IDOMENEO.} (142) (366 K.), even in later years;[9] it is certain that soon after he had made good his footing in Vienna he exerted himself to have it placed on the stage, for which purpose he intended entirely to remodel it. Unfortunately this project fell through, and when in 1786 a company of distinguished amateurs performed the opera at the residence of Prince Karl Auersperg, Mozart contented himself with several alterations, but did not attempt a complete remodelling. Later, and more especially quite recently, "Idomeneo" has been given from time to time on different stages, without exciting as much interest in the general public as the better-known works of Mozart; the judgment of connoisseurs, on the other hand, has always distinguished it.[10] Both phenomena are comprehensible on a close examination of the distinctive features of the work. Ulibicheff remarks with great justice that it is easy to distinguish in "Idomeneo" where Mozart has still clung to the formulas of the opera seria, where he strives to imitate Gluck and the French opera, and where he gives free play to his own independent impulses as an artist. These indications are, of course, not to be met with accurately marked out in the different pieces, Mozart's individuality, in the perfection to which it had now attained, being throughout the very pith of the work.