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guardian.co.uk, 4 May 2005 |
George Hall |
Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, London May 2005
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La Clemenza di Tito
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Royal Festival Hall, London |
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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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