About the Production
Unaware of the threats surrounding him, the Roman emperor Tito tries to live up to his office as well as his own standards.
Tito exercises magnanimity: he forgives his opponents and donates the money intended for the construction of a temple in his honor to the victims of the last eruption of Vesuvius. He also releases Servilia, whom he wanted to marry for reasons of raison d'état, when her lover Annio asks him to do so. But he is not armed against the secret wrath of Vitellia, who claims him and the co-regency for herself and incites his friend Sesto to murder and riot. The Capitol is already in flames. When Sesto confesses to being the instigator of the uprising, Tito is faced with the decision of signing the Senate's death warrant or allowing the proverbial leniency to prevail.
La Clemenza
di Tito
Storyline
Tito sacrifices his love to the will of the people. He separates from his lover, the Jewess Berenice, and is prepared to take a Roman patrician as his wife.
Vitellia, the daughter of the overthrown Emperor Vitellio, claims the throne. She tries to make Sesto, a friend of the emperor, submissive to her will to power. She promises him her favor if he succeeds in killing the emperor. Sesto, wavering between his friendship with the emperor and his love for Vitellia, agrees to join Lentulo's conspiracy and attempt the assassination.
Annio, a young patrician, reports on Berenice's departure. Vitellia then regains hope and orders Sesto to postpone the deed once more. Annio asks his friend Sesto for his consent to marry his sister Servilia.
Rome's nobility gather on the Capitol for Tito's coronation. However, the new emperor intended the gift offered to him to alleviate the suffering of the victims of the recent eruption of Vesuvius. In order to honor Sesto with his friendship, he wants to elevate his sister Servilia to empress. He considers promoting virtue and friendship to be the purpose of his reign.
Annio, who is prepared to submit to the emperor's wishes, tells his bride Servilia that she has been chosen by Tito as his wife. However, she refuses to submit, reaffirms her love for Annio and confesses her love for Annio to Tito, whereupon he renounces her hand and wants to establish the lovers' happiness himself.
Vitellia, who has meanwhile learned of Servilia's intended elevation to empress, feels her pride hurt and urges Sesto once again to take action. He is reluctantly persuaded to carry out the attack once and for all. However, he has barely set off when Vitellia learns of Tito's new plan to choose her as his wife.
Lentulo's rebellion has begun. Vitellia tries in vain to put a stop to it. Fate takes its course. The Capitol is in flames and the people wail and try to save themselves. Sesto returns, convinced that he has killed Tito. Everyone mourns the death of the benevolent ruler.
Annio tells the distraught Sesto that the emperor has remained unharmed in the turmoil. Another had been hit by the dagger. Sesto now confesses his guilt. Vitellia urges him to flee in haste, while Annio advises him to trust in the emperor's mercy.
Publio has Sesto arrested as the proven assassin. He now realizes that he has mistakenly struck his co-conspirator Lentulo, who had already triumphantly adorned himself with the coronation mantle, with the dagger.
Tito, who by a stroke of luck escaped death, shows himself to his people and tries to alleviate their suffering after the burning of the city. The Senate has pronounced the death sentence on Sesto, but the emperor is reluctant to sign it. He wants to speak alone with the friend who betrayed him. Sesto does not reveal the secret of his deed. He is prepared to die. Although the silence of his guilty friend remains a mystery to him, Tito decides to overturn the death sentence.
Vitellia, beset by Servilia's pleas, finally decides to save Sesto by confessing. Remorseful, she throws herself at the Emperor's feet. Tito feels betrayed by everyone. But he does not want to let revenge have the last word. He gives the assassins and conspirators life and freedom. The people praise the happiness of this historic moment.
In accordance with the composition commission and the original, a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, Mozart took a look back at opera seria with La clemenza di Tito . However, by working with a version by the Dresden court poet Caterino Mazzolà that was "reduced to a true opera" according to his catalog of works, the composer had a more compact version at his disposal that was more accommodating to the musical dynamics: only seven of the original 25 arias were retained, four with new text were added.
Even within the "strict form" praised at the time of composition, Mozart achieves moving moments such as the duet no. 7 (Annio and Servilia), while the quintet for the finale of the first act is an exciting action finale that goes beyond the older opera seria and is even reminiscent of the finales of Da Ponte's operas. Also noteworthy are the arias with obbligato clarinet and bass horn solo (No. 9, Sesto and No. 23, Vitellia), which Mozart wrote for his friend and lodge brother Anton Stadler, a virtuoso on both instruments.
The Bohemian Estates had commissioned the work as a coronation opera to mark the coronation of Emperor Leopold II - a coronation that Joseph II had still refused. La Clemenza di Tito was also intended by the Estates, dominated by the clergy and nobility, as an appeal to Leopold's leniency in the sense that they hoped Joseph II's centralist reforms would be reversed in favor of regional privileges. A hope that was disappointed.
In contrast to Metastasio's version, the opera by the freemason Mozart, which was premiered in the face of the French Revolution, is striking in that the ruler's clemency is no longer explained by his divine right, but by his own moral convictions.
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