LA CLEMENZA DI TITO (Glyndebourne Festival Opera)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nH4CpSLsDc&t=1s

Available until: Saturday 18^th July 2021

Glyndebourne have been very generous with their free offerings during lockdown and their latest is their 2017 production of La clemenza di Tito.

La clemenza di Tito is generally not considered to be ‘up there’ with some of Mozart’s better-known operas, but I think it has an absolutely beautiful score and perhaps even my favourite Mozart finale. It doesn’t have the sense of fun of Le nozze di Figaro, the raw sex of parts of Don Giovanni or the magic of Die Zauberflöte, but perhaps this is the one with the potential to play the biggest amount of havoc with your emotions. It shows what love can drive you to, whether that’s love for a person, power or a friend.

Conductor Robin Ticciati captures all the emotion and drama of the opera in a beautiful performance from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment which really shows the score at its best. Director Claus Guth adds to this – his production strongly brings out the emotional dilemmas faced by the characters and it never feels as though he’s setting one or another up as a villain. They’re all people with dreams, like most of us. Only some people take it too far.

Christian Schmidt’s set has two levels, one outdoor, one indoor. This works particularly well in a filmed production as in certain shots, it does actually look as though the singers are outside, but I would imagine it also looks great when you’re at the theatre in person, seeing the two different worlds merged together, the almost clinical cleanliness of the indoor world and the wild mess outside.

Alice Coote, who also includes the role of Sesto in her repertoire, is an unusual choice for Vitellia. The role is considered a soprano role and despite having a tessitura which goes lower than some mezzo roles, it is almost always sung by a soprano. Part of the reason might be that there are already two mezzos in the cast singing Sesto and Annio and although there is another soprano role, Servilia, her role is a relatively small one with just one aria. Therefore, a soprano Vitellia can bring more soprano colours to the music.

However I think it actually works really well for the music to be sung by a mezzo. The higher notes will be within many mezzo’s grasp and Alice Coote is able to give the low notes a strength, conviction and beauty which isn’t an option for many sopranos. As one of the lighter mezzos, Alice is also able to give the higher notes a soprano-like timbre which means she doesn’t sound too similar to the other two mezzos. Alice is also accomplished as an actor and there is a vulnerability in her performance, even in the midst of her scheming, obsessive moments which comes out even more strongly as she begins to regret her actions.

Anna Stéphany shows Sesto’s emotional anguish and although he seems rather silly, which is arguably the best way of explaining his actions, he is not unlikeable. Anna has a powerful and agile mezzo which lends itself well to the various duets Sesto finds himself involved in, whether with a human or a basset horn. Michѐle Losier’s steadfast Annio has a darker tone, which creates a very effective contrast, and Joélle Harvey is a sweet but inwardly strong Servilia – it’s not surprise at all that half the men want to marry her. Clive Bayley, singing in a sonorous bass, makes more of Publio than many.

The opera itself focuses on how wonderfully good Tito is and I’ve always been happy with that, even if I do find him a bit less interesting than the other characters as a consequence. But all three productions which I’ve seen in lockdown have been focused not just on his magnanimity but on the fact he suffers a great deal in this opera. He loses three potential wives, a best friend and nearly gets himself killed. He wouldn’t be human if it didn’t upset him at least a little bit.

It could be that all the productions I’ve seen (which aren’t very many: the opera isn’t performed that often) have also included this element and it is only the advent of digital theatre which has allowed me to see in close-up what a horrible time Tito is having, but it is something that makes the story even stronger. Richard Croft brilliantly portrays a man who is barely holding on and even if you know the opera, you can still get caught up in the excitement of wondering what will happen when Tito finds out the truth.

If you’d like to give opera a try (this one is free), La clemenza di Tito would certainly be an unusual one to start with – but when the production is this good, I can only recommend it.