Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists :: Mozart - La clemenza di Tito / Rolfe Johnson, Varady, von Otter, McNair, Robbin, Hauptmann, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner

Good live version of Mozart's opera seria from 1990

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 11/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"SOURCE: Live recording of a concert performance presented at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The South Bank Centre, London in June 1990.



SOUND: Perfectly acceptable early 1990s, live, digital stereo. It should be noted that this is a performance utilizing period instruments that dates from early in the period instrument revolution. Those who have an inclination to get huffy in such matters may find reason to criticize instruments, players and techniques as not entirely conforming to the most up-to-date research and/or fads in such matters.



CAST: Tito Vespasiano (Titus, son of Vespasian), Emperor of Rome - Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor); Vitellia, daughter of a former Emperor, Vitellius and habitual conspirator - Julia Varady (soprano); Sesto, friend of Titus and would-be lover of Vitellia - Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano); Servillia, sister of Sesto, in love with Annio - Sylvia McNair (soprano); Annio, friend of Sesto and would-be husband of Servillia - Catherine Robbin (mezzo-soprano/contralto); Publio, Prefect of the Praetorian Guards and friend of Titus - Cornelius Hauptmann (bass-baritone).



CONDUCTOR: John Elliot Gardiner with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.



DOCUMENTATION: Libretto in Italian and English. A short but (for once) excellent and informative essay on the opera and its background by Hans Günther Klein. Summary of the plot by act and scene. Track list that identifies singers and provides timings.



TEXT: Mozart, as usual, found himself in a time bind while composing this opera. He delegated the secco recitatives to his assistant and general dogsbody, Franz Xaver Sussmayer, the very same man who posthumously completed (or botched) Mozart's Requiem. In preparation for this recording, Conductor Gardiner obviously regarded Sussmayer as an uninspired drudge--with considerable justification--and ruthlessly shortened or pruned away his contributions.



COMMENTARY: In 1790, W. A. Mozart, a consummate commercial hack, wangled a commission of 200 ducats to set an old piece of tripe by Metastasio to music as part of the festivities surrounding new Holy Roman Emperor's coronation as King of Bohemia. In 1790, W. A. Mozart, a consummate musical genius, reworked a moldy, old-fashioned libretto into a minor masterpiece, creating the only thing of real significance attached to the name of Emperor Leopold II (who died early in 1792, a year-and-a-half before his sister, Marie Antoinette, sometime Queen of France.)



Metastasio's libretto for "La clemenza di Tito" was already half a century old and had been set many times, once even by Gluck. As an improbable fantasy about a ruler who fit all the 18th Century standards for nobility and virtue, it was a sure-fire hit whenever wealthy rulers wanted to congratulate themselves during a celebration.



Unfortunately, the old libretto was also a stately and formal opera seria, just the sort of thing that the creator of "Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" had relegated to the dust heap. A hack of the literary sort, Caterino Mazzolà, was called in. In place of Metastasio's three acts, a succession of arias succeeded by secco recitative succeeded by arias, etc., Mozart demanded two zippy acts in which only seven of the original twenty-five arias would be retained. In their place would be duets, trios and big finales for each of the two acts. Mazzolà, though hardly another Lorenzo da Ponte, was a satisfactorily reliable hack. He gave Mozart what he wanted, although neither of them could overcome the intrinsic lifelessness of Metastasio's book without junking everything and starting over from scratch.



The opera opened to the mild approval of the bigwigs on September 6, 1791. It experienced considerably more success when, a few days later, it was opened for the people of Prague. On September 30th of that year, Mozart was back in Vienna to conduct the premiere of "Die Zauberflöte."



This particular performance of "La Clemenza" was well regarded when it was first published in 1991 and remains so to the present day, although some purists may cavil at Gardiner's high-handed way with the text. The cast is strong, except for the fuzzy and unfocused gargling of Cornelius Hauptmann in what is fortunately a lesser role. Von Otter and Varady are unusually good. I am not a fan of McNair, but she certainly has many of them and they would, I am sure, place her equally with von Otter and Varady--at the very least. Johnson sings Tito's very difficult music with style and assurance although, purely as a matter of personal taste, I find him lacking in star quality.



This is a good, solid performance of the fifth of Mozart's six mature operas. It was composed jointly with his sixth, "The Magic Flute," and it often sounds like it. "La clemenza di Tito's" opera seria roots, like those of his earlier "Idomeneo," sad to say, undermine it and hold it back from achieving the true greatness of his big four operas. "La clemenza's" strait-laced, paper-thin, opera seria characters gave Mozart no opportunity to provide the life that so fills and inhabits the earlier Cherubino, Leporello, Despina and the Papageno who would follow so soon.



Five slightly fusty stars."

A REFERENCIAL VERSION

Hugo | Spain | 08/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Julia Varady, Anne Sophie Von Otter and Sylvia McNair sing the besters Vitelia, Sestus and Servilia of the world.
Anthony Rolfe-Jonhson sing a normal Titus.
Gardiner do a personal reading of the best Mozart`s opera
The sound it`s very very good
This is one of the best versions of the moment."