Grand Finale Washington Opera to End Season at Kennedy Center With ëVanessaí and ëIdomeneoí by Gary Tischler Pl·cido Domingo on stage. A Pulitzer-Prize winning opera. The legendary opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Mozart. Oh, and the ancient Greeks and a troika of modern women. The Washington Opera is giving the Kennedy Centerís Opera House a splendid and temporary adieu, climaxing the fall season with the presence of big stars in two big productions. The Washington Opera will be moving to the Daughters of the American Revolutionís (DAR) Constitution Hall for the remainder of its season in the spring with the beginning of renovations at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Kanawa stars in the title role of Samuel Barberís Pulitzer Prize-winning ìVanessa,î which has four November performances. The Washington Operaís artistic director Pl·cido Domingo then takes to the stage in the title role of ìIdomeneo,î Mozartís legendary opera on Greek heroic epics beginning Nov. 2 with sev en more performances to follow. There probably couldnít be two more contrasting works than ìVanessaî and ìIdomeneo,î in a variety of ways. ìVanessa,î if it were not an opera, would be an August Strindberg play or an Ingmar Bergman movie, or perhaps a Woody Allen take on a Bergman movie. Austere, romantic and eerie, the plot spans three generations of women who, haunted by love and betrayal, have locked themselves away from the outside world until a seductive stranger reignites a flood of desperate passions. Itís also a love triangle of the sort that can be soap opera and is naturally suited for romantic opera. Barber, the tenaciously romantic composer, created the work with long-time friend and collaborator Gian Carlo Menotti, who wrote the libretto. Kanawa has been something of a legend since her spectacular debut at Londonís Royal Opera House in 1971 as the countess in ìLe Nozze di Figaro,î quickly becoming an international opera star and performing in all the great opera houses across the world, including the Metropolitan, the Paris Opera and the Vienna State Opera. This marks her debut with the Washington Opera. Mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer appears as Vanessaís rival, and American tenor John Villars is Anatol, the object of the two womenís affections. More than four hours long, written in the 18th century, and set in the ancient Greece of Homer, ìIdomeneoî is a very different kettle of tea from ìVanessa.î This is the work of a young Mozartówhich is still 10 times better than the work of most mature composersóand it is not, obviously, lacking in size, ambition, scope or length. For any opera company, it is not for the faint of heart. Still, you have Domingo in title role, a spectacular setting, and a tragic tale of sacrifice and love. You also have the gifted Jossie Perez in the trouser role of the royal heir Idamante, all of which makes for one epic evening. ìIdomeneoî is the tale of the king of Crete, who, like Ulysses, survived and did well in the Greek war against Troy and is making his way home when he and his company are shipwrecked. Fearful for his life, he promises the god Neptune that he will sacrifice the first person he sees if he is allowed to survive. As fate would have it, and fate had a lot to do with it in ancient Greece, the first person is Idamante, his son and heir. Throw in Ilia, beloved of Idamante, and Elettra, a fiery rivalócould this be a friend of Elektra?óand you have a passionate, epic tale of men, women and gods, showered with a youthful Mozartís musical grandiosity and energy. ìVanessaî runs Nov. 1, 4, 7 and 10 at the Kennedy Center Opera House; ìIdomeneoî runs Nov. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20 and 23. Tickets are $41 to $285. For more information, please call (202) 295-2400 or visit www.dc-opera.org. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.