LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (Mozart) Zurich 2005 Jonas Kaufmann, Vasselina Kasarova, Eva Mei, Malin Hartelius, Günther Groissböck

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LA CLEMENZA DI TITO by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Opernhaus Zurich, Switzerland
2005

CAST

Jonas Kaufmann – Titus Vespasianus
Eva Mei – Vitellia
Malin Hartelius – Servilia
Vesselina Kasarova – Sesto
Liliana Nikiteanu – Annio
Günther Groissböck – Publio
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Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst
Orchester des Opernhaus Zürich
Chor des Opernhaus Zürich

Stage Director: Jonathan Miller
Stage Designer: Isabella Bywater
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La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. Mozart completed the work in the midst of composing Die Zauberflöte, his last opera. La clemenza di Tito premiered on 6 September 1791 at the Estates Theatre in Prague.

In 1791, the last year of his life, Mozart was already well advanced in writing Die Zauberflöte by July when he was asked to compose an opera seria. The commission came from the impresario Domenico Guardasoni, who lived in Prague and who had been charged by the Estates of Bohemia with providing a new work to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia. The coronation had been planned by the Estates in order to ratify a political agreement between Leopold and the nobility of Bohemia (it had rescinded efforts of Leopold’s brother Joseph II to initiate a program to free the serfs of Bohemia and increase the tax burden of aristocratic landholders). Leopold desired to pacify the Bohemian nobility in order to forestall revolt and strengthen his empire in the face of political challenges engendered by the French Revolution. The ceremony was to take place on 6 September; Guardasoni had been approached about the opera in June. No opera of Mozart was more clearly pressed into the service of a political agenda than La clemenza di Tito, in this case to promote the reactionary political and social policies of an aristocratic elite. No evidence exists to evaluate Mozart’s attitude toward this, or even whether he was aware of the internal political conflicts raging in the kingdom of Bohemia in 1791.

In a contract dated 8 July, Guardasoni promised that he would engage a castrato “of leading quality” (this seems to have mattered more than who wrote the opera); that he would “have the libretto caused to be written…and to be set to music by a distinguished maestro”. The time was tight and Guardasoni had a get-out clause: if he failed to secure a new text, he would resort to La clemenza di Tito, a libretto written more than half a century earlier by Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782).

Metastasio’s libretto had already been set by nearly 40 composers; the story is based on the life of Roman Emperor Titus, from some brief hints in The Lives of the Caesars by the Roman writer Suetonius, and was elaborated by Metastasio in 1734 for the Italian composer Antonio Caldara. Among later settings were Gluck‘s in 1752 and Josef Mysliveček‘s version in 1774. Mozart was definitely familiar with the libretto before composition; in 1770, he saw a production with his father of Michelangelo Valentini [it]‘s setting in Cremona.^[2] There would be three further settings after 1791. Mozart was not Guardasoni’s first choice. Instead, he approached Antonio Salieri, the most distinguished composer of Italian opera in Vienna and head of the music establishment at the imperial court. But Salieri was too busy, and he declined the commission, although he did attend the coronation.

Synopsis
Place and time: Ancient Rome, in the year 79.

Act 1
Vitellia, daughter of the late emperor Vitellius (who had been deposed by Tito’s father Vespasian), wants revenge against Tito. She stirs up Tito’s vacillating friend Sesto, who is in love with her, to act against him (duet “Come ti piace, imponi”). But when she hears word that Tito has sent Berenice of Cilicia, of whom she was jealous, back to Jerusalem, Vitellia tells Sesto to delay carrying out her wishes, hoping Tito will choose her (Vitellia) as his empress (aria “Deh, se piacer mi vuoi”).

Tito, however, decides to choose Sesto’s sister Servilia to be his empress, and orders Annio (Sesto’s friend) to bear the message to Servilia (aria “Del più sublime soglio”). Since Annio and Servilia, unbeknownst to Tito, are in love, this news is very unwelcome to both (duet “Ah, perdona al primo affetto”). Servilia decides to tell Tito the truth but also says that if Tito still insists on marrying her, she will obey. Tito thanks the gods for Servilia’s truthfulness, and immediately forswears the idea of coming between her and Annio (aria “Ah, se fosse intorno al trono”).

In the meantime, however, Vitellia has heard the news about Tito’s interest in Servilia and is again boiling with jealousy. She urges Sesto to assassinate Tito. He agrees, singing one of the opera’s most famous arias (“Parto, parto, ma tu, ben mio” with basset clarinet obbligato). Almost as soon as he leaves, Annio and the guard Publio arrive to escort Vitellia to Tito, who has now chosen her as his empress. She is filled with feelings of guilt and worry over what she has sent Sesto to do.

Sesto, meanwhile, is at the Capitol wrestling with his conscience (recitativo “Oh Dei, che smania è questa”), as he and his accomplices set about burning it down. The other characters (except Tito) enter severally and react with horror to the burning Capitol. Sesto reenters and announces that he saw Tito slain, but Vitellia stops him from incriminating himself as the assassin. The others lament Tito in a slow, mournful conclusion to act one.

Act 2
The act begins with Annio telling Sesto that Emperor Tito is in fact alive and has just been seen; in the smoke and chaos, Sesto had mistaken someone else for Tito. Sesto wants to leave Rome, but Annio persuades him not to (aria “Torna di Tito a lato”). Soon Publio arrives to arrest Sesto, bearing the news that it was one of Sesto’s co-conspirators who dressed himself in Tito’s robes and was stabbed, though not mortally, by Sesto. The Senate tries Sesto as Tito waits impatiently, sure that his friend will be exonerated; Publio expresses his doubts (aria “Tardi s’avvede d’un tradimento”) and leaves for the Senate. Annio begs Tito to show clemency towards his friend (aria “Tu fosti tradito”). Publio returns and announces that Sesto has been found guilty and that his death sentence only awaits Tito’s signature.

Attempting to obtain further details about the plot, the anguished Tito decides to send for Sesto first. Sesto takes all the guilt on himself and says he deserves death (rondo “Deh, per questo istante solo”), so Tito tells him he shall have it and sends him away. But after an extended inner struggle, Tito tears up the execution warrant for Sesto. He determines that, if the world will accuse him (Tito) of anything, it should charge him with showing too much mercy, rather than with having a vengeful heart (aria “Se all’impero”).

Vitellia at this time is wracked with guilt, but Servilia warns her that tears alone will not save Sesto (aria “S’altro che lagrime”). Vitellia finally decides to confess all to Tito, giving up her hopes of empire (rondo “Non più di fiori” with basset horn obbligato). In the amphitheatre, the condemned (including Sesto) are waiting to be thrown to the wild beasts. Tito is about to show mercy, when Vitellia offers her confession as the instigator of Sesto’s plot. Although shocked, the emperor includes her in the general clemency he offers (recitativo accompagnato “Ma che giorno è mai questo?”). The opera concludes with all the subjects praising the extreme generosity of Tito; he then asks that the gods cut short his days, should he ever cease to care for the good of Rome.

Quoted from Wikipedia