Only a genius in his early twenties could have written Idomeneo. The iconoclastic daring of youth is evident in the way that, time and again, Mozart abruptly chops arias or merges them into recitative to heighten the drama. It’s almost Joycean, stream-of-consciousness stuff.

But the genius shines through in the way that his richly varied music penetrates the profound emotional depths of this tale – which is really the sacrificial story of Abraham and Isaac replayed in mythological Crete and overlaid with a veneer of Enlightenment optimism.

Most of that daring, and some of the profundity, was captured in this concert performance, part of the Barbican’s Homeward Bound series showcasing the unique voice and keen intelligence of Ian Bostridge. Few tenors do anguish as well as he, and his portrayal of Idomeneo’s terrible dilemma – seemingly forced by the gods to slay his son to pay for his own escape from death – was touching and noble.

But I wonder, nevertheless, whether Bostridge is truly “homeward bound” playing the Cretan king. Some of the part lies desperately low for him, especially when the orchestra – Fabio Biondi’s mostly impressive period-instrument band, Europa Galante – was spitting and bubbling like a cauldron of boiling oil all around him. And his recitative lacked that vital spark of Italianate volatility. It was all a bit overinternalised and donnish.

Happily the women in the cast provided more than enough vim and vigour, agony and ecstasy, to carry the show. Emma Bell’s fuming Elettra was magnificent. Torrentially powerful, brilliantly incisive, she cooed like a dove in her brief moment of hope, but then, in a stunning last aria, became the very embodiment of the scorned woman like whom hell hath no fury.

The cause of her raging-bull anger, Kate Royal’s radiant Ilia, was also in fine form – far more animated and varied in delivery than in some recent roles. What a pity that Biondi – directing while ostentatiously clutching his bow and violin (on which he played no more than 50 notes all night) – was at his least responsive while accompanying her delectable Act II aria.

Jurgita Adamonyte’s beautifully steady Idamante (what a prospect this young Lithuanian mezzo is), and Benjamin Hulett’s gamely sung Arbace made up an excellent cast.

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