guardian.co.uk, 4 May 2005
George Hall
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, London May 2005
La Clemenza di Tito
Royal Festival Hall, London
Zurich Opera's latest flying visit to London brought a concert performance of Mozart's final opera seria, a work that has undergone significant revaluation in recent times. Once regarded as a throwback to a moribund tradition dashed off because Mozart needed the money, it is now viewed as the harbinger of a sparer style the composer didn't live to develop.

In fact Tito has considerable merits, but it needs a strong performance to bring them out. Zurich Opera's concert version was based on a Jonathan Miller production that opened 10 days ago. But the peculiar decision to ditch the recitatives (not by Mozart, but prepared under his supervision) for spoken dialogue left this performance with a stop-go feeling not helped by the late replacement of two of the cast due to illness.

One of the replacements, the American mezzo Susan Graham in the trouser role of the Emperor's friend Sesto, provided the best performance of the evening. Her showpiece aria Parto, Parto, was delivered with a wide dynamic range, complete technical command and riveting expressive power, and she brought the house down. In the title role, Jonas Kaufmann handled the spoken text superbly but was sketchy in the coloratura passages.

As Vitellia, the spurned noblewoman who eggs Sesto on to attempted assassination, Eva Mei managed all the notes but her dramatic reading seemed half-hearted by the side of Graham's commitment. Malin Hartelius's Servilia and Günther Groissböck as Publio, captain of the praetorian guard, were both present and correct. As was Franz Welser-Möst's conducting, though he missed much of the subtle detail of the score that can add significantly to its character and impact.

In fact, with the exception of Graham, the bulk of the music-making was outclassed by ENO's production at the Coliseum a few months back.
 






 
 
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