[Met Performance] CID:287220



La Clemenza di Tito
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 22, 1987

Debut : Diana Montague




La Clemenza di Tito (15)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Caterino Mazzolà
Tito
David Rendall

Vitellia
Carol Vaness

Sesto
Tatiana Troyanos

Servilia
Dawn Upshaw

Annio
Diana Montague [Debut]

Publio
Julien Robbins

Berenice
Cheryllynn Ross


Conductor
James Levine


Production
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Stage Director
Pamela McRae





La Clemenza di Tito received eight performances this season.

Review 1:

Ivan Martinson in New York Native

I anticipated a grand "Tannhäuser," but I expected less of the revival of Mozart's “Clemenza Di Tito,” a work even devoted Mozarteans sometimes find hard to love. But Ponnelle's 1984 staging of “Clemenza” has been lovingly revived and far better cast than it was the first time around. At the second performance, a night of blizzard, the half-empty Met was full of happy people. A subscriber type said at the end, "I want to hear that again. Right now:”


David Rendall is particularly to be commended for giving New York its finest Tito ever. (Yes, I heard all the other five). Last year, when he lost so much weight before singing "Idomeneo" his voice seemed to lose all its bloom while he retained command of the style and drama he has always had. This year he has regained much of the lyric beauty that distinguished his Ferrando. His divisions are liquid and refreshing, his majesty genuine. Without a great Tito, “Clemenza” has no center and falls to pieces, becomes a dry succession of arias. That did not happen.


The role of Sesto knows no finer interpreter today than Tatiana Troyanos. Her oboeish tones in phrases of tenderness always caress; her ornaments, if now and then rushed, serve her dramatic purpose: her acting, as always, is staggering.


Carol Vaness has become a bit shrill as Vitellia, admittedly Mozart's shrillest creation. Although she generally sings well, she has done the role better. The coolth that enriches her vocal line sometimes evaporated, and fioriture could be ragged. Is she putting on pressure to emulate Renata Scotto or to conquer a perceived blandness of personality in comparison to, say, Hildegard Behrens? Or is this the effect of too much heavy Verdi (she's been singing Amelia in “Ballo” lately, a throat-breaker), who is death to so many promising young singers? Neither Scotto nor Behrens could ever sing Mozart worth a damn; Vaness should cut the Verdi and chill out.


Diana Montague sings a pretty but vapid Annio. She has good instincts, but her voice lacks personality, and in her duet with Troyanos she vanished altogether. Julien Robbins made an inoffensive Publio. Dawn Upshaw, in the small, pallid role of Servilia, was very pleasing, but the purity of the line that is so attractive is rattled when she must try for a big note. The tone spreads and wavers, which may limit her utility in a huge house. Her Servilia impressed me and would have blown me away had I not heard Hei-Kyung Hong sing an even lovelier one two years ago. They're alternating the role this year so you can make your own decision. As I said above, Levine seems to like this kind of voice and it's a lovable type. It says much for the Met that, in this latter day, young singers as talented as these two can hang around and occasionally get a Bohème to show off in, as Hong did last month.


Levine, singing along with much of the opera, tossed himself into the score. We may owe its revival, and much of the other Mozart the Met has been doing so well to half-full houses in recent years, to Levine's personal taste in the matter. If so, amen. And the orchestral playing in "Clemenza" was dreamy. The Ponnelle production, set in Roman ruins after Piranesi (and, possibly, Escher), is often handsome and sometimes cluttered, but never senseless or perverse. Why do we regard that as an exceptional plus for the company?



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