(c) Emilie Brouchon La Clemenza di Tito: Paris Opera
Paris, Palais Garnier
About the Event
Harry Bicket conducts Mozart's austere and flamboyant masterpiece, 'La Clemenza di Tito', in Willy Decker's refined staging, at the Palais Garnier.
The title of La Clemenza di Tito says it all: the emperor of Rome, although betrayed by his friend who has attempted to kill him for the love of a woman, will choose to pardon the conspirators. Themes of imperial mercy were standard fare for operas, especially when written on royal commission.
This is precisely the case with this work, composed in just eighteen days by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for Prague in 1791, on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II, alongside The Magic Flute and the Requiem. Despite a libretto by the poet Metastasio that had been set many times by other composers, and a musical form – opera seria – already considered outdated, Mozart’s subtle and delicate music lays bare the truth of the characters’ emotions.
In Willy Decker’s stylised staging, a marble block at the centre of the stage gradually reveals the emperor’s hidden face: that of a solitary, wounded man.
Cast / Production
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Music
Pietro Metastasio
Libretto adapted by Caterino Mazzolà
Harry Bicket
Conductor
Willy Decker
Director
John Macfarlane
Set design and costume design
Hans Toelstede
Lighting design
Ching‐Lien Wu
Chorus master
Cast
Pavol Breslik
Tito Vespasiano (24 Nov. 7 Dec.)
Matthew Polenzani
Tito Vespasiano (10 25 Dec.)
Hanna‐Elisabeth Müller
Vitellia
Johanna Wallroth
Servilia
Emily D'Angelo
Sesto
Maria Warenberg
Annio
Alex Rosen
Publio
The Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Address
Palais Garnier, 8, rue du Scribe, Paris, France — Google Maps
