SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Mozart, La clemenza di Tito: Soloists, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Cond: Edward Gardner. Barbican Hall, London 26.7.2008 (ME)

‘Connoisseurs are in doubt whether ‘Tito’ does not in fact surpass ‘Don Giovanni’’ (Niemetschek, Life of Mozart) - a judgment which would have amazed those who attended the premiere, given that the Empress Maria Louisa’s reaction was ‘almost all of us went to sleep’, and while ‘Don Giovanni’ was playing to packed houses, ‘Tito’ received tiny audiences. None of my regular readers will be at all surprised that I consider ‘Tito’ to be by far the greater work – after all, it is relentlessly serious from start to finish, and uncompromisingly Handelian in that the characters give voice to their emotions in moments of crisis, and then move on. No mopsing and moueing about, no daft disguises, no embarrassing ‘comedy’ – just a succession of wonderful arias and subtle characterization through music. Of course, it is not an opera for amateurs or beginners – it needs the very finest soloists and absolute commitment to its noble ideals: it received everything it needed at the Barbican on Saturday night.

In vocal terms, it was the mezzos’ night, with a definitive Sesto from Alice Coote, and a career-defining Annio from Fiona Murphy. The rôle of Sesto has had many distinguished interpreters, and on this showing Alice Coote is fit to stand alongside Brigitte Fassbaender – she brought blazing intensity to the characterization as well as a warm, burnished tone and superb agility to the singing, and both ‘Parto, parto’ and ‘Deh per questo istante solo’ rightly brought the house down. These two showpieces, however, were not singled out in her performance but merely parts of a fully realized whole, where the small recitatives seemed to trip off the tongue not glibly but as naturally as if in impassioned conversation.

I have not heard Fiona Murphy before – she is a product of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia (also the vocal alma mater of Juan Diego Flórez) she is currently a member of Houston Grand Opera Studio, and she possesses one of the most beautiful mezzo-soprano voices I’ve heard in a long time. ‘Torna di Tito al lato’ was a high point of the evening, eloquently phrased and meltingly tender in tone, and her duet with Servilia, ‘Ah, perdona al primo affetto’ brought tears to my eyes, and not just for its heart-rending sentiment – this is how all Mozart singing should sound. Perfection.

Seneca wrote that ‘…it is the act of a great mind in the height of its authority to suffer injuries… nothing is more glorious in a Prince, than to pardon those who have offended him’ which appears to have been the actual modus vivendi of the historical Titus, but of course that kind of reasoned benevolence is very difficult to characterize. Toby Spence is a fine Mozartean, and his Tito was only just short of greatness in vocal terms; ‘Se all’ impero’ was forceful although a little strenuous for him in the highest reaches, and ‘Del più sublime soglio’ may not have had its long lines filled out with quite the beefy tone brought to them by some tenors, but Spence made up for this with his wonderfully exact phrasing, musical sensitivity and dramatic skill.

Hillevi Martinpelto was a fiery Vitellia, her pleading with Sesto and her jealous rages equally persuasive; ‘Deh, se piacer mi vuoi’ perhaps showed her at her best, and ‘Non più di fiori’ revealed the brightness of her tone and the considerable vocal agility at her command – the basset horn obbligato was eloquently played by, I think, Antony Pay (the names listed under the OAE’s title in the programme not being the players whom I know constitute its members!) Sarah Tynan’s Servilia was an outstanding contribution in a small, but important rôle – ‘S’altro che lagrime’ was as beautifully sung as I’ve ever heard it. Matthew Rose was a fine Publio, representing the voice of propriety just as Annio represents Tito’s conscience.

It would be easy to hate Edward Gardner – after all, he was about fourteen when he became music director of Glyndebourne on tour (actually, he was twenty-eight) and took up the position of music dictator (sorry, director) at the ENO last year, he’s ludicrously handsome, extremely musical and clearly inspires terror in the players. Of course, one can’t hate anyone who can produce a performance like this – I doubt if Mozart himself could have obtained such exact articulation, such spot-on phrasing and such knife-edge precision, not to mention the exquisite ensemble work. The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is simply the best large choir around – the Act I finale was tremendous.

Concert versions of operas are often rather limp in execution, but of course ‘Tito’ is the perfect vehicle for one since it is by its very nature formal, structured around its arias and statuesque, for want of a better word, in style. I did not feel the lack of pillars, billowing togas and flames in this performance, since the conductor and singers did everything possible to bring alive the emotions of the characters; one especially fine scene was when Tito and Sesto sit down together to try to fathom the latter’s betrayal – beautifully done in every particular. A great evening, and the best ‘Mostly Mozart’ event of this or any other series so far.

Melanie Eskenazi


Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page