Opera seria en deux actes créé le 6 septembre 1791 au Stavovské divadlo à Prague pour le couronnement de Léopold II sur un livret de Caterino Mazzolà d’après Métastase
OPÉRA EN VERSION DE CONCERT
JEREMY OVENDEN, Tito
APHRODITE PATOULIDOU, Vitellia
ANNA EL-KHASHEM, Servilia
MAITE BEAUMONT, Sesto
AMBROISINE BRÉ, Annio
ADRIEN FOURNAISON, Publio
CHOEUR DU MOZARTFEST WÜRZBURG
LES TALENS LYRIQUES
CHRISTOPHE ROUSSET, pianoforte et direction
COPRODUCTION MOZARTFEST WÜRZBURG – LES TALENS LYRIQUES
AVEC LE SOUTIEN DU CNM ET DE L’INSTITUT FRANÇAIS + VILLE DE PARIS
La clemenza di Tito transports us to an imagined Rome, shaped by an ideal of integrity and justice far removed from the political intrigues that animated the ancient world. Here, Antiquity is reinterpreted through the lens of an eighteenth century steeped in the ideals of the Enlightenment, those very principles that form the foundation of our democratic and humanist heritage, and which are so often under threat today. Above all, this is an opera about the strength of friendship, for it is the bond that unites Sesto, Annio, and Tito that drives the drama.
This is one of my favourite Mozarts, though it’s often overlooked in favour of The Marriage of Figaro or Così fan tutte. For me, La clemenza di Tito is a musical testament his final opera, a return to the opera seria genre, which was deemed outdated but grants an unmatched nobility and depth to the characters. Here, we are in the realm of pure tragedy, with that monumental final act of forgiveness which defines the opera, echoing the ideal of the 18th-century enlightened monarch.
What moves me most is the solitude that inhabits each character, even in the most glorious ensembles. With Mozart, there’s always this infinite tenderness, this heartwrenching humanism. From the very first bars of the overture, the music grips me… And there’s something profoundly beautiful about experiencing his work this way juxtaposing one of his earliest operas, Ascanio in Alba with his last.
Christophe Rousset