W. A. Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito

Cambridge Opera Handbooks

by John A. Rice

This is the first book to be devoted to Mozart's opera, La clemenza di Tito. Rice considers the opera from a variety of historical and critical viewpoints. Tito is a political opera. The author examines its origins in the politically unstable Habsburg Empire of 1791, interpreting it as a response to revolutionary threats both inside and outside the empire. Tito is also a literary opera: much of its dramatic power lies in its libretto. Rice analyses Metastasio's libretto and the revised version that Mozart set. The volume explores aspects of Mozart's compositional process, the premiere in Prague, and subsequent critical reception through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In a concluding chapter, Rice reviews recent performances as well as scholarly research that sheds light on the interpretation of the opera. The volume, which contains illustrations of recent productions, a discography, and a bibliography, will be of interest to students, scholars and opera-goers.

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Ralph Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good summation of a forgotten, or at least, more obscure Mozart opera. How the tides turn.

[Bogdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two drawbacks: the book was published 20 years ago and many (exciting) things have happened in the world of La clemenza di Tito since then. The second one is it's a small book that can be read in one go. The voracious Clemenza-phile (the numbers are growing) wants more, of course. Its brevity is partly due to John A. Rice's to the point style.

Pretty much every angle is explored, from the context of its conception to modern (up to 20 years ago) stage productions. There are fairly in depth explorations of the music and the innovations Mozart and Mazzola brought to the genre of opera seria when writing Clemenza together. There is also an interesting survey of the journey Clemenza took from its initial success to falling out of the repertoire after cca 1830 and then making a rather spectacular come back in the second half of the 20th century.

I give it 5 stars because it's as good as can be for what it is, especially seeing as there's precious little scholarly info on Clemenza on the market (that I know of).