La Clemenza di Tito, opera review: The emperor strikes back

The eponymous emperor in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito dispenses his clemency to forgive and save his lifelong friend Sesto, following the latter’s assassination attempt. Both Sesto’s motivation (the love of a woman, Vitellia) and Tito’s clemency are sometimes seen as dramaturgically problematic. Claus Guth’s new production attempts to account for both by interjecting filmed sequences of Tito and Sesto as boys, depicting friendship, betrayal and a child’s potential for cruelty and moral degradation.

The analogue, updating the action to the present day, is sometimes puzzling – a technical malfunction at the start didn’t help – but the outline is clear. Christian Schmidt’s split-level set, skilfully lit by Olaf Winter, contrasts an upper world of political reality against a lower sphere of nature (grass, water) where past events are recalled.

There are some telling moments, when the sense of a dream-world is created and consciences examined. Others are less convincing: the all-too-frequent recourse of Vitellia (Alice Coote) to a cigarette, the semaphore of the (excellent) chorus that borders on the risible and a general lack of tautness in the stage action.

Richard Croft’s soft-grained, introspective Tito fails to project the strength of character that his music tells us underpins his leniency. Coote’s Vitellia is superbly sung, as is Anna Stéphany’s Sesto, with a very fine Servilia from Joélle Harvey and Annio from Michèle Losier.

Though it has never quite regained the popularity it had in the early 19th century, Clemenza has gained headway in recent decades. With one glorious number following another, sung as impressively as this, and played so eloquently on the OAE’s period instruments under Robin Ticciati’s assured and sensitive direction, it is not difficult to see why.

The need for humanity and security to be balanced by rulers is an ever-present issue. The final image of Guth’s thoughtful production poignantly juxtaposes a vision of compassion with the realpolitik of Tito’s guard Publio, creepily enacted by Clive Bayley, assuming power in his place.

Until Aug 26, Glyndebourne; glyndebourne.com