Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
This stylish 1991 production of Mozart's final opera is another triumph from England's Glyndebourne Festival. "Odd man out" among Mozart's stage works, Tito clashes with such subtle masterpieces as Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro due to its remote subject matter (assassination plot against Roman emperor Titus) and serious tone. But when done right--as here--Tito emerges, through Mozart's sublime music, as a classic character study. Director Nicholas Hytner couches the story in an immediacy often missing from stagings of Mozart's operas. Led by Philip Langridge's forgiving Titus and Ashley Putnam's conspiratorial Vitellia, the cast sings with the skillful brio of the best Mozarteans; Andrew Davis fluidly conducts the London Philharmonic. The opera is sung in Italian with optional English subtitles, and the Dolby 5.1 mix places the voices out front, as they should be in Mozart. This Tito is a welcome addition to anyone's Mozart collection. --Kevin Filipski
Description
Mozart's La Clemenza Di Tito was originally commissioned to celebrate the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791. This rarely seen masterpiece was Mozart's last opera. Nicholas Hytner's elegant staging for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera sheds new light on the compelling story of passion that overrides loyalty and integrity that is tested to the extreme. Starring Ashley Putnam, Diana Montague, Elzbieta Szmytka, Martine Mahe, Peter Rose, Philip Langridge. 143 minutes, 1991.
DVD:
DVD
Jesse James at Bay (REGION 1) (NTSC)