Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia: La clemenza di Tito

About the Event

At Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Mozart’s final opera seria welcomes audiences into a world of power, betrayal and compassion. La clemenza di Tito follows the Roman emperor Titus as he confronts political intrigue and the demands of mercy.

La clemenza di Tito, or the Mercy of a King in the Age of the Guillotine

Composed for the coronation of Leopold II of Austria as King of Bohemia, the opera premiered only years after the storming of the Bastille, amid the bloodiest days of the French Revolution. Eternal Rome’s enduring relevance appealed to monarchists and freethinkers alike: the former saw the crown’s benevolence in forgiving betrayal, while the latter voiced a people questioning the legitimacy of untouchable rulers. Mozart’s final creation, however, rises above the politics of its turbulent age to explore human fragility, turning Tito’s clemency from an act of state into an ethical dilemma about the solitude of power and the complexity of human affections.

Emperor Tito is brought to life by two young artists with firmly established international careers: conductor Stefano Montanari and stage director Rafael R. Villalobos. Villalobos relocates the action to 1940s Cinecittà, where intrigues among divas and producers reveal how cinema and Roman imagery were used to create imperial grandeur. To convey the drama’s emotional tension while preserving Mozart’s score, few are better suited than Montanari, one of his generation’s most vivid and expressive conductors, as shown in Così fan tutte. Tenor Antonio Poli sings Tito, one of the newest roles—alongside Idomeneo—in his Mozart repertoire. His political rival, Vitellia, is portrayed by rising soprano Anastasia Bartoli, daughter and pupil of Cecilia Gasdia, whose generous, versatile voice moves from Mozart and Rossini to Verdian heroines including Lady Macbeth and Abigaille. Completing the cast are American mezzo‐soprano Angela Brower as Sesto, admired for her full, brilliant tone and shaped artistically by the Bayerische Staatsoper, with regular appearances at the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera and young Galician soprano Rosalía Cid as Servilia, whose career includes Dresden, La Scala and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and who makes her first operatic appearance in Spain at Les Arts.