OPERA:                                                                                                                                             

LA CLEMENZA DI TITO

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Ludovic Morlot & Ivo Van Hove

 NEW PRODUCTION

BRUSSELS: This last season, it was heroines who guided us on the path of human passions. Today, it is rather great masculine figures, the protagonists of La Clemenza di Tito, Hamlet, Guillaume Tell, Rigoletto, Fidelio and Orfeo et Euridice – Orfeo being perhaps the most extreme among them – who will help us analyse the relationships between power and the individual, acceptation and revolt, compromise and disobedience. We believe that this is a theme that nobody can be indifferent to nowadays, when, like all those rebels, insurgents, revolutionaries, indignados and other extremists of our time, we are incessantly confronted to the consequences of the dilemma of consent or refusal that makes up our daily information.

Although very popular during the first decade of the 19th century, La Clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart all but vanished in the 1820’s, as the audience deemed it outdated compared to other works by Mozart. It is only in the 1960’s-1970’s that it was admitted that this opera was not that boring nor cold, that it spoke about human beings made of flesh and blood and that it lacked not drama nor romanticism.

We are in August 1791. Mozart had not composed a opera seria for ten years, but did write in the meantime a string of masterpieces both very personal and innovative: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosìfan tutte. However, that’s what Guardasoni, the director of the Prague National Theatre commissioned him to do on the occasion of the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II of Bavaria, who was to be sacred King of Bohemia by next September. The whole thing was brought to a close within less than eighteen days. Even for a genius like Mozart, this is a rare exploit. If the lack of time is notably felt, the score however contains ones of the best aria’s from Mozart. Vitellia’s coloratura dominate the opera by her strength of character, her command of the situations and her sense of the melodrama– after all, she accept to become Empress when she knows that one minute before she sent Sesto, who is desperately in love with her, to kill the Emperor.

Our permanent conductor Ludovic Morlot will be at the head of the La Monnaie Symphonic Orchestra and Choirs. The French conductor asserted himself in a very short period as one of the most important conductors of his time. For his first season at La Monnaie, he has conducted the Requiem by Bruneau in November, Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) in April and Così fan tutte (Mozart) in June with a great success.

The direction was entrusted to the Belgian Ivo Van Hove, who produced Idomeneo, re di Creta, in March 2010.

Martino Faggiani, whom after numerous productions at La Monnaie, was nominated Choirmaster in January 2012, will lead the La Monnaie Choir.

The role of the Emperor Titus Vespasiano will be shared by two great tenors, the Austrian Kurt Streit, tremendous Jason in our last production of Médée (Cherubini) and Boris Grigorjevič in Kát’a Kabanová (Janáček), and the American Charles Workman* who performed Alwa (Lulu, Berg) in November 2012
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Vitellia, central character to the opera and future empress, will be incarnated by the French soprano Véronique Gens, specialist of Mozart repertoire. Her success in the role of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni, Mozart) at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence has led her to the greatest lyrical stages, a role she will sing to Covent Garden this winter. She will be in alternation with the Bulgarian Soprano Alex Penda* (Alexandrina Pendatchanska), who interpreted already Vitelia in our concert-version of Clemenza in 2005.

Her debuts in the role of Violetta for our new production of La Traviata in December left an unforgettable impression with the press and public alike. The Slovak soprano Simona Šaturová incarnates Servilia, the sister of Sesto in love with Annio and ephemeral fiancée of the emperor.

The mezzo-sopranos Anna Bonitatibus and the Canadian Michèle Losier* who will make her debut at La Monnaieand in this role, incarnate the character of Sesto. A friend of the Emperor, he embodies the conflict between men and power, even though his revolt is not rooted in politics but in his obsessive love for Vitellia. The Italian Anna Bonitatibus has not returned to La Monnaie since her performance as Sesto for Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel), in January 2008.

The Swedish

mezzo-soprano Anna Grevelius debuts at la Monnaie and in the role of Annio, the suitor of Servilia who will be given back to her by the Emperor. The English Frances Bourne* will alternately sing Annio for her debut in the role. In La Monnaie, she has sung Amando (Le Grand Macabre, Ligeti) and the triple role of Theatergarderobiere, Gymnasiast& Groom in our recent Lulu (Berg).

For his debut in the role of Publio, we can hear again the Italian baritone-bass Alex Esposito whom we have not had the opportunity to listen to since his debut at La Monnaie in the role of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart) in 2009

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GENERAL INFORMATION 

CAST |Musical Direction Ludovic Morlot
Director Ivo van Hove
Stage setting & costumes Jan Versweyveld
Costumes An D’Huys
Video Tal Yarden
Dramaturgy Janine Brogt, Reinder Pols
Choir Master Martino Faggiani

La Monnaie Symphonic Orchestra

Titus Vespaniano Kurt Streit / Charles Workman*
Vitellia Véronique Gens / Alexandrina Pendatchanska*
Servilia Simona Šaturová
Sesto Anna Bonitatibus / Michèle Losier*

Annio Anna Grevelius / Frances Bourne*
Publio Alex Esposito

PERFORMANCES |10, 11*, 15, 16*, 17, 19*, 22*, 23, 24*, 26 October 2013 – 20:00

13 & 20 October 2013 – 15:00