MARCH 2009 - La Clemenza di Tito in Avignon

Dimanche 29, 14 h 30
Mardi 31, 20 h 30

 

Opéra
Nouvelle production et création à Avignon

 

La Clemenza di Tito,

opéra-seria en deux actes K 621,

livret de Pietro Metastasio,

adapté par Catelino Mazzola,

musique de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Direction musicale Jonathan Schiffman
Mise en scène Alain Garichot
Décors Denis Fruchaud
Costumes Claude Masson
Lumières Marc Delamezière

Vitellia : Ermonela Jaho
Sesto : Karine Deshayes
Annio : Marie Lenormand
Tito : Gilles Ragon
Publio : David Bizic

Orchestre lyrique de région Avignon Provence
Chœurs de l’opéra théâtre d’Avignon et des pays de Vaucluse

 

 

 

History and background of the opera

In July 1791, the last year of his life, Mozart was already well advanced in writing The Magic Flute when he was asked to compose an opera seria. The commission came from the impresario Domenico Guardasoni, who lived in Prague and who had been charged with providing a new work to mark the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor as King of Bohemia.

Metastasio's 1734 libretto had already been set by other composers; the story is based on the life of Roman Emperor Titus elaborating on some sketchy hints in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars. The libretto was edited into a more useful state by court poet Caterino Mazzolà. Mozart had no hesitation in accepting the commission — at twice the fee he was used to receiving for an opera in Vienna.

King Leopold was known to favour opera in the Italian style, rather than the more Germanic manner for which Mozart was known. It is not known what he thought of the opera written in his honour, but his wife Maria Louisa is reputed to have dismissed it as porcheria tedesca, or "German swinery."

The premiere took place a few hours after Leopold's coronation and the first public performance was in Prague on 6 September 1791. La Clemenz di Tito remained popular for many years after Mozart's death; it was the first Mozart opera to reach London, premiered there at His Majesty's Theatre in 1806.

Stanley Sadie considers it to show Mozart "responding with music of restraint, nobility and warmth to a new kind of stimulus" (New Grove. Mozart, p. 164).

The opera was the inspiration for the 2006 film Daratt, by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun.

 

 

 

 

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