Prom 59 - 28.08.17: Mozart - La clemenza di Tito

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00 Monday 28 August 2017
Royal Albert Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, K 621
(semi-staged; sung in Italian)

Steve Davislim Titus
Alice Coote Vitellia
Joélle Harvey Servile
Anna Stéphany (Sextus)
Michèle Losier (Annius)
Clive Bayley Publius
Glyndebourne Festival Opera ensemble
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robin Ticciati conductor

The collision of love and ambition in Mozart's morally conflicted final opera, and the compassion of a wronged emperor, make for a scenario as relevant today as in the ancient Rome where it is set. Blending ravishing arias with intricate human psychology, La clemenza di Tito ranks among the finest of Mozart's mature works.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A little off-topic anecdote here.

When I was at school at the age of around 13, we had a test in our class music lesson. We had been listening to excerpts from Die Zauberflöte some time before, with a general mention of Mozart's other operas. The question required us simply to name an opera by Mozart. As music was mms number one subject, I was a bit of a show-off in that department, and han recently been captivated by the Overture to La clemenza did Tito. So I gave this as the answer to the question. It was marked "wrong", and the normal excellent music teacher wouldn't recant.

I feel thwarted to this day.

[Stanfordian]

A little off-topic anecdote here.

When I was at school at the age of around 13, we had a test in our class music lesson. We had been listening to excerpts from Die Zauberflöte some time before, with a general mention of Mozart's other operas. The question required us simply to name an opera by Mozart. As music was mms number one subject, I was a bit of a show-off in that department, and han recently been captivated by the Overture to La clemenza did Tito. So I gave this as the answer to the question. It was marked "wrong", and the normal excellent music teacher wouldn't recant.

I feel thwarted to this day.

Sadly the music content or lack of it at my schools was sweet FA.

[vinteuil]

.

... various Jewish friends still baulk at the notion of him being described as such a 'clement' Emperor - he who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus

But the music is gorgeous - and the parts for basset clarinet / basset horn scrumptious...


.

[Constantbee]

A little off-topic anecdote here.

When I was at school at the age of around 13, we had a test in our class music lesson. We had been listening to excerpts from Die Zauberflöte some time before, with a general mention of Mozart's other operas. The question required us simply to name an opera by Mozart. As music was mms number one subject, I was a bit of a show-off in that department, and han recently been captivated by the Overture to La clemenza did Tito. So I gave this as the answer to the question. It was marked "wrong", and the normal excellent music teacher wouldn't recant.

I feel thwarted to this day.

Sadly, this sort of thing still happens today . Worse than ever in some places.

[Darkbloom]

The lack of posts on this concert probably tells its own story. I listened to it in a half-hearted way but never found myself truly engaged. However much I try to like this work, it still sounds like Mozart the craftsman rather than Mozart the genius. I'm sure there are many people who revere it (the conductor called it 'sublime' on the radio), but it's not a patch on Idomeneo. I don't think the conducting helped; all period bustle (it reminded me of their Entfuhrung last year) without any real direction to it. When I listen to performances like this it makes me long for someone like Colin Davis (probably the conductor I miss most these days) to give it the shape it needs. I'd forgotten how brutally low some of the writing for Vitellia is; Alice Coote did her best but she was obviously struggling with it at times. Another singer seemed to be having problems staying in tune, but I find this work so anonymous that I couldn't tell who it was.

[Richard Tarleton]

Didn't listen because I don't like Alice Coote's voice, at all, but I adore the opera. I have the Colin Davis recording, but was introduced to the work by a magical WNO performance with Charles Mackerras - the gorgeous basset horn solos came as a complete surprise. They were more prominent in the theatre, rather backwardly placed IMO on the Davis recording. Isabelle Vernet was Vitellia in Cardiff, and Katerina Karnéus was Sesto - it got an excellent review from Hugh Canning.

[PhilipT]

Well, I enjoyed it. The slightly weird Glyndebourne split-level staging transferred well to the RAH, and it was no loss to go without the video sequences.

EA, you have the cast wrong: Richard Croft sang Titus.

[bluestateprommer]

Extremely belated (and probably more pointless than usual, from me) reply on this Prom, well after the fact. While I wouldn't rank this opera anywhere near Wolfie's best, to be sure (not that my opinion on the opera matters, of course), this performance went well, once past the somewhat self-consciously "period" style of the overture, to take Darkbloom's point. Once the singers kicked in, then at least to me, things settled down nicely with the opera proper. I wonder if some of the backlash may be something of a backlash on Ticciati himself, for whatever reason. (I admit to mixed feelings about his direction of the SCO's Prom earlier this season.). But overall, in terms of performance quality, I lean more to PhilipT's evaluation.

Then the question becomes what next year's Glyndebourne Prom will be, which Pulcinella addressed in this other thread. My own hope, for the sake of the Proms, is either Saul or Vanessa. This means, of course, that it will be neither of those .