Mozart - La Clemenza Di Tito

2 DVD - Label: Tdk Recordings Media Europe - DVWW-OPCLETI - La Clemenza Di Tito, K.621 - Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus - Tenor: Michael Schade - Soprano: Vesselina Kasarova - Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Choir: Vienna State Opera Concert Choir - Orchestra: Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Wholenote Discoveries - June 2009
TDK has issued a reasonably priced DVD package of Mozart operas recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, all with The Vienna Philharmonic, featuring distinguished soloists of the time (6 DVDs). These were all recorded by the ORF and licensed by them and issued with the official Salzburger Festspiele Dokumente logo. This production of La Clemenza di Tito from August 2003 moves Mozart’s last opera into the 21st Century. And it works to perfection. La Clemenza was completed in 1791 shortly before Mozart’s death and history has eclipsed the event with the stories of the commissioning of the unfinished Requiem. The opera was written for the coronation of Ludwig II of Bavaria and has always been controversial, deemed unperformable by many. I don’t believe this opera is mentioned, even in passing, in the movie Amadeus that so painstakingly dwells on Mozart’s last year. All misgivings have been removed since this spectacular staging in 2003 here presented in wide screen and surround sound. The cast will be familiar: Michael Schade brings Tito to life; Vesselina Kasarova, Sesto; Dorothea Röschmann, Vitellia; Elina Garanča, Annio; Barbara Bonney, Servilia; and Luca Pisaroni, Publio. None of these singers is less than astonishing and all are beyond criticism. Canadian Michael Schade needs no introduction and those of us who saw Le Cenerentola live from the Met recently will well remember Elina Garanča, here cast in a most unusual role. Nikolaus Harnoncourt keeps a steady pulse and succeeds in turning in a performance that, together with every aspect of this production, makes La Clemenza di Tito the most captivating of the three in this package. Bruce Surtees