Washington Concert Opera led by the estimable Anthony Walker treated an enthusiastic audience to a magnificent production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito on March 1st, 2025, at The George Washington University Lisner Auditorium. La clemenza, written at breakneck speed while Mozart was also writing Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), was Mozart’s last opera. While the work was commissioned to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia and to promote his reactionary policies, Mozart took the commission with its quick deadline not because he wanted to support the new king but because he needed the money.
The story, written in two acts, concerns the emperor’s choice of a bride—Tito considers several women. What erupts are jealousy and a plot to assassinate Tito. Vitellia, the woman who loves him, believes he will marry Servilia. Thus, Vitellia enlists Tito’s best friend Sesto to kill the emperor. Sesto is willing to do this despicable deed because he is deeply in love with Vitellia. However, Servilia bravely tells Tito that her heart has been stolen by Annio but she will marry Tito if he still wants her. Tito, known to be a reasonable man, decides to dismiss Servilia and marry Vitellia. Uh oh! The conflicted Sesto has already moved forward with the assassination plot and the report comes back that Tito has been stabbed, and the capitol is on fire.
Act II reveals that Tito lives. Sesto takes full responsibility for the conspiracy so that he can protect Vitellia, and Tito debates whether his friend Sesto will be thrown to the lions. Additionally, Sesto’s sister Servilia, not knowing Vitellia’s role in the failed assassination, begs Vitellia, the future empress, to advocate for Sesto. This opera seria, contrary to most of this genre, sees a happy end. The good emperor pardons all the transgressors.
The opera is filled with passionate arias, duets, and trios. The WCO cast was comprised of world-class singers, all of whom gave masterful performances. A particular stand-out was mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche as Sesto. Originally this role was performed by a castrato; today it is sung by either a counter-tenor or a mezzo. Annio, traditionally a pants role, was sung by mezzo-soprano Meridian Prall who was wearing a long dress. While the singers of this concert production were not wearing costumes, Prall’s choice of attire created some gender confusion. In a similar way, the surtitles created arbitrary confusion by referring to Latin names of the characters instead of the more familiar Italian names—for example Tito was referred to as Titus and Sesto was Sextus. Tenor Edgardo Rocha was a convincing Tito. Besides these operatic roles, this production featured the “voice” of two instruments: the basset clarinet (in Act I) and the basset horn (in Act II). Mozart wrote these parts for his friend Anton Stadler, who played them at the premiere. Clarinetist Jonathan Gunn stood with the singers as if his instrument was a cast member and answered their singing with his virtuosic musical response in two arias, one in each act. Sesto’s first-act aria “Parto, Parto, ma tu ben mio” was a high point of the opera, both for Doche’s singing and Gunn’s basset clarinet solo. In the second act, the basset horn harmonized with Vitellia as she confessed to Tito in “Non più di fiori.”
The orchestra included 32 musicians. William Woodward played continuo (a fortepiano) on the secco recitatives. The chorus numbered 24. Conductor-director Antony Walker, a showman in the mode of Leonard Bernstein, ruled seamlessly.
The next production Washington Concert Opera is Verdi’s Luisa Miller on April 13, 2025 again at The GWU Lisner Auditorium.
Karren LaLonde Alenier
