Music: Attic Operatics

The theater was nearly 1,800 years old; Herodes Atticus, an Athenian philanthropist, had built it into the side of the Acropolis beneath Athens' magnificent Parthenon. Many of its marble seats stayed unchipped over the centuries; others were replaced, and klieg lights were installed to light the way for modern theatergoers. One evening last week, as dusk settled over Attica's brown hills, the moon over the amphitheater competed with the electric lights. An audience filled the 3,000 seats for a performance of Mozart's Idomeneo, a rarely staged opera with an ancient Greek background.

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