[Met Performance] CID:278700



La Clemenza di Tito
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, November 24, 1984




La Clemenza di Tito (10)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Caterino Mazzolà
Tito
John Alexander

Vitellia
Carol Vaness

Sesto
Tatiana Troyanos

Servilia
Hei-Kyung Hong

Annio
Ann Murray

Publio
Julien Robbins

Berenice
Nancy Ticotin


Conductor
James Levine







Review 1:

Review of Will Crutchfield in The New York Times

Four singers who have entered the Metropolitan Opera's "Clemenza di Tito" cast over the past weeks appeared together for the first and (as the schedule stands) only time Saturday evening. That is a shame, since each one was a distinct improvement over the [first night] roster that is to return when the opera reappears in January.

Pride of place must go to John Alexander, who has surely found in Titus one of the most successful roles of his very long career. He commanded both declamatory strength and quiet dignity, and although he is in his mid-60's his voice is fresh, powerful, bright and clear. The difficult coloratura in "Se all'impero" was not expertly done, but Mr. Alexander came much closer to it than his predecessor in the part.

Carol Vaness was a fit foe to him. She played Vitellia with largely the same gestures and business as Renata Scotto but divested them of the manic air of caricature the Italian chose to affect in the part. With Miss Vaness, it was possible not only to believe in the web of sexual enslavement spun round poor Sextus (that was there in Miss. Scotto's performance) but also in some of the qualities that might have made Vitellia a plausible consort for Titus and a woman Sextus could forgive and love after his ordeal.

And Miss Vaness sings the part, which she has done at City Opera, very well. Her high notes ring out fresh and exciting through the hall, not ballooned up out of proportion to the voice. She has a telling chest register (although by the end a the evening low G was a reach), and knows how to get in and out of it. Her pronunciation seemed dark and sluggish in comparison with Miss Scotto's, so the recitatives were less interesting but this was the work of an extremely valuable singer in exactly the right kind of part.

Hei-Kyung Hong made a lovely impression in her first Met role, Servilia (her actual debut came on Nov. 17). She has a pure, cool voice reminiscent at times of Lucia Popp's. Some of her higher phases were cautious or "fixed" sounding, but her sound is true and she was an appealing presence on the stage. Julien Robbins's great contribution as Publius was a well-defined, clean, right-on-the-pitch bass voice. How nice not to have to search for the note among vague, cavernous, foggy resonances! But that could have been said of all four new principals, and one of the results is that the ensemble singing came within hailing distance of the beautiful orchestral playing -- as it had not when the production opened.



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