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OPERA REVIEW
October 16, 2004
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By Kathryn Cathcart
West Bay Opera made a slight detour from its staged productions on Saturday with a concert performance of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. With great and even near-great music, it can be a wonderful treat to hear a live performance of works that seldom or never make it to regular season line-ups at opera houses. Thus, it was more than enjoyable just to hear the music from the mature Mozart's penultimate operatic work. Also wise was the choice to sing the numbers in the original Italian but to substitute spoken dialog in English for the often awkward recitatives, which in the main were composed by Mozart's pupil Süssmayer.
La clemenza di Tito was composed for the coronation in Prague of Austrian Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia. The libretto is a reworking of an opera seria by Metastasio, revised for the occasion by Dresden court poet Caterino Mazzolà and no doubt chosen for its glorification of virtuous royalty, at a time when the French Revolution was paralyzing all the crowned heads of Europe with fear. But styles had changed significantly in the decade since Idomeneo, and opera seria had lost its dominance in the modern theater. Mozart, badly in need of money and seriously ill, accepted the commission in hopes of renewing his contacts at the Austrian court, but needed the assistance of Süssmayer to complete both Tito and the Requiem. Many of the numbers in Tito are puzzlingly short, for all their beauty, and likely attributable both to Mozart's illness and to the brevity of the time period of composition — approximately 11 days, according to some sources.
West Bay Opera's General Director and Conductor David Sloss introduced the evening with a relevant bit of Roman history and the cast took over the performance from there. Tito's two greatest roles are Vitellia and Sesto, the vengeful hopeful to the throne and the young patrician who is desperately smitten with her. Shana Blake Hill successfully tackled the rigorous vocal demands of Vitellia with musical and technical assurance but missed entirely the inherent dignity of the character. Vitellia feels that, as Emperor Vitellius' daughter, her ascendancy to the throne has been stolen by the usurpers who killed her father and that only Tito can put this right by marrying her. When he passes over her not once, but twice, her vengeance takes hold, and she doesn't hesitate to use Sesto as a pawn in her plans to assume the throne by commanding him to kill Tito, his best friend. Although Sesto is essentially a good soul, his fixation with Vitellia prevents him from acting wisely, and he agrees to help her carry out her plot. Megan Dey-Tóth expressed Sesto's conflict with a somewhat monochromatic dismay, relying on her rich mezzo-soprano to carry the day — which it did, except for the great aria ”Parto, parto” (I leave), which was tentative and sluggish.
Todd Wilander supplied the requisite dignity and vocal power to the role of Tito, and his musicality and understanding of the role's nobility enriched the evening enormously. Sesto's friend Annio was ably sung by the bright-voiced Sonia Gariaeff, a bright light in a serious evening, while Heidi Moss offered a sweet-voiced portrayal of Annio's love and Sesto's sister, Servilia. Michael Rogers was a capable Publio, Tito's officer of the Praetorian Guard. Throughout the evening, Sloss was a generous and musical accompanist, leading his forces with assurance and style. Only in the great Act I Finale was one disappointed in the lack of choral weight for the grandeur of the occasion. Corinne Barrows' lighting did much to create the varying moods of the piece, but occasionally the hand of a stage director could have helped point the dramatic proceedings in a more unified direction. All in all, a satisfying evening. Performances will be repeated October 22 and 24 at the Lucie Stern Theater, Palo Alto.
(Kathryn Cathcart is Music Director of the Opera Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.)
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Todd Wilander (Tito)
Shana Blake-Hill (Vitellia)
Megan Dey-Tóth (Sesto)