Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

*** Résumé en anglais seulement ***This stylish 1991 production of Mozart's final opera is another triumph from England's Glyndebourne Festival. Odd man out among Mozart's stage works, Tito clashes with such subtle masterpieces as Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro due to its remote subject matter (assassination plot against Roman emperor Titus) and serious tone. But when done right--as here--Tito emerges, through Mozart's sublime music, as a classic character study. Director Nicholas Hytner couches the story in an immediacy often missing from stagings of Mozart's operas. Led by Philip Langridge's forgiving Titus and Ashley Putnam's conspiratorial Vitellia, the cast sings with the skillful brio of the best Mozarteans; Andrew Davis fluidly conducts the London Philharmonic. The opera is sung in Italian with optional English subtitles, and the Dolby 5.1 mix places the voices out front, as they should be in Mozart. This Tito is a welcome addition to anyone's Mozart collection.