Gregory Kunde - La Clemenza di Tito 2011

Some critics have complained that Mozart had to write this opera in a very short time and thatswhy it was not as good as his other operas. I'm no expert but I love this opera. I wonder why nobody is able nowadays to write music that is nearly as good as the wonderful music of Mozart.

I'm not an opera aficianado, but this is the most gorgeous and majestic music I've ever heard. Truly sublime and near the very end of his life.

I cannot imagine a more perfect Sesto than Sarah Connolly.

i can not imagine a world without mozart. it would leave such a gaping hole in the universe.

Yes, there are quite a few live recordings of this Mozart's last masterpiece opera, but for me, Sir Colin Davis stands out as the best conductor of this majestic and grand opera. He knew exactly what Mozart wanted, and how should his style and and tempo should be, and Sir Colin Davis is the master of Mozart that no other conductor can beat, other than Karl Böhm, my other best-loved of Mozart's music. Sir Colin Davis, you will be missed by Classical music lovers.

Gorgeous singing from Sarah Connolly and Anna Stephany in particular.

what an eye-pleasing, beautiful production

So hard to perform and for that reason so rarely. This truly is a masterpiece. Mozart proves one more time that he was a genius of composing. Nothing but praise words for this performance. Beautiful. One of the most beautiful operas of all time in my opinion. Just beautiful, nothing more to say.

La interpretación de Tito en la voz del maestro Gregory Kunde estuvo magistral "outstanding" digno de un gran representante que ha dejado huella indeleble entre los mejores cantantes líricos de la actualidad. Bravo!!!

How lovely to have the whole production. Very fine it is. Thank you.

The Operatic Impresario for the Bohemian National Theatre in Prague (Domenico Guardasoni) had originally approach’d Antonio Salieri sometime in early July 1791 with a Scrittura to compose a festival opera for the Coronation Ceremonies for Leopold II as King of Bohemia on 6 September 1791–but he had taken over the responsibilities for the Vienna National Theatre for his student Josef Weigl with whom he was preparing a festival Cantata to be perform’d at Esterhaza that same week - and turn’d Guardasoni down no less than three times before finally Guardasoni turn’d to Mozart having doubl’d the remuneration to 200 ducats & 50 ducats extra for traveling expenses sometime on Friday the 22nd of July 1791 - leaving only 45 days with which to get a workable Libretto (trimming Metastasio’s wooden 3-Act opera La Clemenza di Tito down to two acts &c.) and compose the music and rehearse the ensemble in time for the premiere ... What made matters worse was the fact that none of the parts had been cast yet—and M. typically wrote specific music for specific singers in the solo arias— In fact he was not presented with a list of singers until Thursday 18 August (18 days before the final dress rehearsal) which meant he had to compose all the concerted pieces (duetti, trios, quartets, quintets, marches, the choruses & the two finales first & only after he knew the ranges of the singers would he tackle the 10 or so solo-arias (which meant from 18 August through 5 September 1791 he was writing aria after aria after aria after aria at breakneck speed..) To save time, the job of composing the 15 or so secci recitativi was handed over to his student copyist Franz Xaver Suessmayr (1763-1801) —but it is clear that (after scholars had review’d them closely for lapses in style) thst Mozart must have felt the need to re-write half a dozen of them... In Act II the grand concert aria (‘Non piu di fiori’—with an obbligato corno di bassetto part) had already existed since 1789 (it was originally written for Josepha Dussek) and could be re-us’d with a new accompagnato recitativo introduction to fit into the plot of the new opera—evidently another time-saving device ... Had M. liv’d to put the finishing touches on the score, he surely would have upgraded some of Suessmayr’s more prosaic secci recitativi for a series of elaborate & far more dramatic accompagnati (as he had done previously in his 1785 Vienna revival of Idomoneo from 1781) and probably would have added a few more choruses & marches to offset some of the weaknesses in the plot—but we must remain satisfied with what he manag’d to set in writing during those frantic 45 days of white-hot creation — Thankfully M. had several unus’d drafts from Die Zauberflote (April through July 1791) to re-work for Tito (the Magic Flute was more or less finish’d by the end of July except for the Overture & the March of the Priests which—according to his Verzeichnuess Catalogue—were added late September 1791)— Apparently it was from the same fund of unus’d sketch material that M. also resorted to re-using/completing/re-adapting in the ‘Little Masonic Cantata’ of early November 1791–that is before 19 November 1791 when his final illness began to materialise (evidently a streptococcal infection which typically always trigger’d his latent Rheumatic Fever symptoms including fainting fits, high fever & severe edema swelling of hands & feet)—at one point he seems to have injured his head in a blackout seizure causing an internal hematoma (‘Una deposita alla testa’) whose bleeding could not be controll’d according to Dr Nikolaus Klosset of the Vienna National Hospital ... We see however in The Magic Flute, La Clemenza di Tito & the Requiem the music of a man who seem’d to be relishing his latest successes & was evidently in the throes of introducing a series of wholly new directions for his music — which had he liv’d would have revolutionis’d the musical scene in Europe far earlier than Beethoven’s later impacts after 1804...

Sarah is amazing as Sesto . She also looks a lot like Brahms here !

Les dernières minutes sont particulièrement sublimes.

Mozart uses the clarinets quiet often in this opera

Thank you so much for uploading this performance.

Very napoleonic, those martial arts soldiers. A bit of Crouching Tiger meets War and Peace.

Setting the opera into the napoleonic periode makes so much sense if you think about it

2:18:58 Sestetto con coro - Finale (Tu, è ver, m'assolvi, Augusto - Il vero pentimento - Oh generoso! oh grande! - Eterni Dei, vegliate - Troncate, eterni Dei)

Remarquable difficile de faire mieux bravo merci pour le partage.

EXTRAORDINARIA ... inmortaliza aun mas a mi amado MOZART ..!! Viva la Clemencia di tito... desde ARGENTINA SALUDOS..!!