It is much to be regretted that after this chorus the opera follows the usual course of opera seria, and leaves important dramatic situations unused for the purposes of musical representation. If, according to the original design, the remaining chief situations had been wrought together into a duet for Ilia and Idamante and a quartet, we should then possess masterpieces of grand dramatic music at the close of the opera; instead of this separate songs have been detached from their context in order to satisfy the singers. The grandiose and free treatment of the choruses, both in the voice parts and the accompaniments, places them almost on a level with those of "König Thamos"; but a more condensed and pregnant style of music was required in the opera than in "König Thamos," where the connection with the drama was loose and superficial. Mindful of this consideration, Mozart, while giving the choruses free scope for musical execution, never allows them to stand independent of and apart from the words. A reminiscence of French opera is evident in the treatment of the recitatives as well as in the important part allotted to the chorus. The groundwork of the dialogue is, as usual, in secco recitative, but accompanied recitative is more often employed as introductory to the songs than formerly, and it is also made use of as the most fitting vehicle for passionate or agitated soliloquies, such as that of Idomeneo after the appearance of the monster (18), or for solemn and pathetic appeals, such as that of the High Priest (22); also at different points of the dialogue where the sentiment rises above the tone of ordinary speech, the accompanied recitative interrupts the secco for a longer or shorter interval, and gives the dialogue increased power and {IDOMENEO.} (158)