La Clemenza di Tito, Metropolitan Opera HD Live, Dec. 1 2012

San Francisco Opera performed Mozart’s almost-final opera (it premiered 3½ weeks before The Magic Flute) in 1993, and it didn’t make much of an impression on me then. But with nearly 20 more years of opera experience under my belt, including Idomeneo, and with notable performers such as Elina Garanca, Barbara Frittoli, and Kate Lindsey, it was worth a short drive and a few bucks to give La Clemenza di Tito another try. Definitely better the second time around!

No radical director “concepts” were in evidence here. Every scene was a variation on a basic set comprising two levels of stage, with a semicircular series of steps to connect the front and the back, and stone arches and columns in abundance, with a large arch in the center of the back wall. Inside this arch were placed various objects appropriate to the action of the scene: a large bed in the opening scene, a ship (on rails) for Berenice’s departure, a statue, etc. 

Our cast: 

Servilia: Lucy Crowe
Vitellia: Barbara Frittoli
Sesto: Elina Garanca
Annio: Kate Lindsey
Tito: Giuseppe Filianoti
Publio: Oren Gradus

Conductor: Harry Bicket
Production: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

I’ve been a fan of Kate Lindsey ever since her knockout performance as Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffman (Met HD Live broadcast Dec. 2009), and again she was superb. Her duet with Servilia (Lucy Crowe) was ravishing. Elina Garanca certainly has a wide range of characters. I’ve seen her as Cenerentola, Carmen, and now the pants role of Sesto, and each time she was outstanding. To think that, prior to La Cenerentola, I said “Elina Garanca? Who’s that?” Now I know, and you can count me as one of her fans too. Barbara Frittoli sang very well, but was somewhat overshadowed by those first two. Definitely a beta.