Mozart's La clemenza di Tito
Teodor Currentzis (conductor), Peter Sellars (stage director) — Russell Thomas, Golda Schultz, Christina Gansch, Marianne Crebassa, Jeanine De Bique...
Cast
Peter Sellars — Stage director
George Tsypin — Stage sets
Robby Duiveman — Costume designer
James F. Ingalls — Lighting
Antonio Cuenca Ruiz — Dramaturgy
Russell Thomas — Tito Vespasiano
Golda Schultz — Vitellia
Program notes
Mozart's La clemenza di Tito gets the royal treatment in its 2017 Salzburg Festival production led by famed American stage director Peter Sellars, starring Russell Thomas as the emperor Tito, Golda Schultz as Vitellia, Christina Gansch as Servilia, and Marianne Crebassa as Sesto, and featuring the orchestra MusicAeterna under the direction of Teodor Currentzis.
How do we live together in an age of conflict? How do you heal a divided and angry people? In their 2017 production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Peter Sellars and Teodor Currentzis examine these questions through the story of a warrior-emperor who brings peace to his divided land and pardons his own would-be assassins. Written under a time crunch (legend has it that it was written in only 18 days, although it is likely an exaggeration) during the last year of Mozart's life, the opera is based on a libretto written more than half a century earlier by Pietro Metastasio. It was commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, and received its first public performance at the Estates Theatre in Prague on September 6, 1791. The opera has been a favorite with audiences ever since!
Photo: © Salzburger Festspiele / Ruth Walz
