Opera Review: The Empire Doesn't Strike Back

The Metropolitan Opera brings back Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conspirators: Vitellia (Elza van den Heever) and Sesto (Joyce DiDonato)
plot as Publio (Christian Van Horn) looks on in a scene from La Clemenza di Tito.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2019 The Metropolitan Opera.

In past seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, revivals of the company's 1984 Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito were often done out of a sense of obligation to the composer's reputation. However, this spring run, under the baton of new broom conductor Lothar Koenigs,  has been particularly inspired. On Tuesday night, in the penultimate performance of this opera this season, the cast, featuring soprano Elza van den Heever and mezzo Joyce DiDonato made the case for this work being one of the composer's strongest efforts.

Recordings Review: Babylon and On...and On

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment records Semiramide. (All of it.)
by Paul J. Pelkonen

It's good to be the queen: Albina Shagimuratova is Semiramide.
Photo courtesy Askonas Holt.

Time has not always been kind to the opera seria of Gioacchino Rossini. While his comedies, led by Il Barbiere di Siviglia are regularly presented on stages around the world, one is less likely to encounter his serious works. Among the finest of these is Semiramide, his 34th opera and his last opera written (in 1823) for an Italian theater. It is the subject of a new and exhaustive recording of the complete score, by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Made in the summer of 2016 at London's Henry Wood Hall, and sprawling on four discs, this four-hour Semiramide offers windows into two different operatic worlds: Rossini's own era and the boom period where studio recordings were common.

Opera Review: Making Assyria Great Again

The Metropolitan Opera gambles on Rossini's hazardous Semiramide.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Uneasy lies the head: Angela Meade (center) in Semiramide, with Ildar Abdrazakov (right) and Ryan Speedo Green (left).
Photo by Ken Howard © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

Even in the rarified aviary of the Metropolitan Opera House, Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide is an exotic species. The composer's final opera for the Italian stage was written in 1823. It brought down the curtain on opera seria, the genre that had been at the heart of Italian operatic tradition for well over a century. Brought to the Met in 1892, it had to wait ninety years for a revival, only to be mothballed again for another quarter of a century. On Monday night, the Met finally revived Semiramide as a vehicle for Angela Meade, the American soprano who has enjoyed some success in the current craze for bel canto repertory.

Opera Review: Altar'ed States

Matthew Polenzani takes on Idomeneo at the Met.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Idomeneo (Matthew Polenzani, left) contemplates sacrificing his son Idamante (Alice Coote, kneeling) in Act III of Mozart's Idomeneo.  Photo  by Marty Sohl Copyright 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director emeritus continued his tour of the great Mozart operas on Monday night with this season’s first revival of Idomeneo. This staging of the 1781 opera seria featured a cast of singers that have been groomed and nurtured under Mr. Levine's hand. Last night, the most notable of these was tenor Matthew Polenzani. He sang the title role, a part essayed on the big Met stage by both Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo in decades past.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Idomeneo

Power, mystery and a gigantic sea monster in Mozart's drama.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The supernatural climax of Mozart's Idomeneo.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2006 The Metropolitan Opera.

Matthew Polenzani takes on the title role in Mozart's challening drama, an opera seria thar chronicles the trials and tribulations of a Cretan king who returns from the Trojan War only to find out that the gods demand a sacrifice: his only son.

The Mozart Project: La Clemenza di Tito

A plea for mercy or expediency in Mozart's final opera seria.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Roman Emperor Titus. Portrait by Bernardino Campi. 

It's funny how necessity can make an artist productive. That was the case in 1791, the last year of Mozart's life. In July, the composer (already hard at work on a new piece called Die Zauberflöte) received a commission from one Domenico Guardasoni, to write a new opera celebrating the impending coronation of Leopold II. The Hapsburg ruler was already the Holy Roman Emperor, and he was about to be installed as as the King of Bohemia. The result, banged out in just 18 days was La clemenza di Tito, which premiered in Prague on Sept. 6. The opera represents Mozart's last thoughts on the genre of opera seria--he died on December 5 of that same year.

Opera Review: Sea Change

René Jacobs offers a fresh take on Mozart's Idomeneo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor René Jacobs led the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Mozart's Idomeneo
in a concert performance Thursday night at Mostly Mozart. Photo by Joseph Molina
courtesy Lincoln Center Press Department.

It is rare to attend a performance with the potential to revamp an entire city's attitude toward a great but neglected piece of classical music. On Thursday night at Alice Tully Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival welcomed historically informed performance expert and conductor René Jacobs, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and a strong cast of lesser-known soloists, most of them in their Mostly Mozart Festival debuts. Their job: a concert performance of Idomeneo, the no-foolin' three-act operatic masterpiece that Mozart wrote at the age of 25.

The Mozart Project: Idomeneo, Re di Creta

Sense, sensibility and yes, sea monsters in Mozart's mythic drama.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Image from the 1955 Ray Harryhausen picture It Came From Beneath the Sea.
© 1955 Clover Productions Incorporated.

In the year 1780, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 24 years old, he accepted a commission from the Elector of Bavaria to write a new opera for Carnival season the following year. The result was Idomeneo, re di Creta, his thirteenth opera and the earliest of his stage creations to retain a place in the standard repertory of the world's opera houses. Sprawling over three acts, this is a work of exceptional musical ambition and challenge to its performers, as it was created for the formidable orchestra and cast that were at the Elector's disposal.

Opera Review: The SPQR-Word

Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble presents La Clemenza di Tito.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hilary Ginther (left) as Sesto and Elana Gleason as Vitellia plot and plan in
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's new production of La Clemenza di Tito.
Photo by Angel Roy © 2013 Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble

Of the mature operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it is La Clemenza di Tito that has the lowest reputation. The composer dashed off the work in ten days to meet a ridiculous crunch deadline--the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. The libretto, recycled from a Metastasio story, is somewhat dated with an 18th century approach to classical drama and politics and a musical style that clashes between Mozart's late-period innovations and the stage conventions of opera seria.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Giulio Cesare

The Met imports a British production of Händel's most famous opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cocktails in Egypt: David Daniels (right) and Natalie Dessay as Caesar and Cleopatra
in the Met's new production of Giulio Cesare. Photo by Dan Rest © Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The Metropolitan Opera continues to showcase the performance and production of baroque opera. Here, the company imports David McVicar's 2005 production of Giulio Cesare (alternate title: Giulio Cesare in Egitto) to the big stage as a vehicle for countertenor David Daniels (in the title role) and soprano Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra. This is the last new production of the 2012-2013 season.

Despite the British origin of this work (it premiered in London in 1724) the plot of Giulio Cesare has nothing to do with Shakespeare or the ruler's assassination on the Ides of March. Handel's opera retells the doomed romance between the Egyptian queen and the Roman military leader. The two leads have great opportunity for florid vocal display, with eight arias each.

Giulio Cesare is not some rarity dusted off by historical archivists. The work is considered to be Händel's finest, with musical invention, multiple orchestras at one point and other innovations that made it the most popular  stage work in 18th centiry London. It was one of the first baroque works to be revived in the 20th century (in a version using a baritone Caesar.) The Met will present an authentic 18th centurty style performance, conducted by Harry Bickett.

Giulio Cesare opens April 4, 2013.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: La clemenza di Tito

The Met revives Mozart's last opera seria.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Giuseppe Filianoti (center) sings the title role in the Met's revival of La clemenza di Tito.
Photo © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's La clemenza di Tito represents the composer's final effort in the genre of opera seria, the overwhelmingly popular style of the 18th century that drew thematic inspiration and its plots from the events and myths of classical antiquity. Composed in a rush of notes (Mozart had less than three months) for the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II as the new king of Bohemia, the opera shares some parallels with Mozart's last opera, Die Zauberflöte.

The story of Tito makes the Roman emperor Titus out to be a mensch. Its source: an old libretto by Metastasio, based on an incident mentioned in Suetonius's Lives of the Roman Emperors. Tito (Giuseppe Filianoti) responds to a failed assassination attempt by forgiving the assassin. This was librettist Domenico Guardasoni's attempt to encourage Leopold to show similar clemency. The opera was finished in three months, just in time for the coronation. its premiere took place one hour after Leopold took the throne.

Alas, Leopold died six months later, so history never got a chance to find out what a nice guy he might have been.

Although the part of the emperor requires a powerful tenor, the key role of this opera is Sesto, the would-be assassin. The part, written for a virtuoso castrato, requires a mezzo-soprano of power and flexibility, capable of showing a wide range of emotion. Elina Garanča rises to the challenge in a role she has sung to great acclaim in Vienna. Also in on the plot: Vitellia, sung by soprano Barbara Frittoli. This is yet another revival of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's sturdy staging. Harry Bicket conducts.

La clemenza di Tito opens Nov. 16. The Met will broadcast this production as part of its Live in HD series on Dec. 1.

Brass Tacks: Baroque Opera and Opera Seria

Opera before the revolution.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A typical over-the top baroque extravaganza. This is a scene from Handel's Xerxes.

"Baroque opera" is a catch-all term used for "early" operas, written before 1754. Opera seria is a name for an Italian opera style that dominated music in Italy and elsewhere for 150 years and has enjoyed a revival on the modern operatic stage. The French equivalent is tragédie en musique, a form that has been around since 1673.

First, some history.

The first opera was Dafne, written by Jacopo Peri in 1597 for the Venetian Carnival season. The score is now lost. The earliest examples available to us are operas by Claudio Monteverdi, whose L'Orfeo, L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria are all performed today.

The preferred subject matter for this new art form was mythological or historical in nature. When real life events were portrayed (a trend started by Monteverdi with Poppea) they were set far enough back in antiquity that no-one would possibly be offended.

Here's an example from L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi, written in 1642.

Performance by Rachel Yakar with the Ensemble Zurich cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt.