Things are looking great for Mozart’s last seria in Salzburg: not one but three Clemenzas in one season! The Mozartwoche’s own production boasted a happy string of debuts in a musically luxurious performance, weighed down only by a less-than-ideal semi-staging in the Felsenreitschule.
Jordi Savall helmed the evening. His foray into Mozart operas was defined by the chamber-like assembly of Le Concert des Nations, light on strings and leading with a stark, lean tone – a somewhat baffling and occasionally underwhelming direction given the work's grandiosity. But Savall’s sensibility for this score was also apparent. Opening with a curtly phrased, almost martial overture, this was a performance with incredible dramatic flow and magnetic energy, the lyrical moments rendered with filigree beauty, the dramatic high points emphasised with rich orchestral colouring. The Philharmonia Chor Wien performed their considerable part with appealing force and a keen sense of drama.
Though her Vitellia couldn't take the crown, Hanna-Elisabeth Müller triumphed. A decade ago, she was a luminous Servilia in Munich. Now, she took on Vitellia with such affinity and polished ease as if it had long been in her repertoire, offering a masterclass in creating a highly expressive portrayal, with every last phrase of recitative thrillingly full of life and feeling. At turns deliciously condescending, venomous and in disarray, her Vitellia was, vocally and scenically, a fully realised, nuanced character, from a wily “Deh, se piacer” to a devastating yet beautiful “Non più di fiori”. Perhaps her silvery, shimmering soprano could use a bit more dramatic heft, but otherwise one could hardly ask for more.
Meeting her every step of the way, Magdalena Kožená’s captivating, tour de force Sesto earned rapturous applause. Kožená showed complete vocal mastery and great understanding of the role. Her warm, noble, remarkably youthful tone is well-suited to the tortured young Roman, and her delivery was always deeply felt and profoundly moving. The coloratura passages of the enchantingly wounded “Parto, parto” were delivered with dazzling ease, and the poignant “Deh, per questo” was eloquently ornamented.
Edgardo Rocha's debut as the titular emperor showed great promise. His bright tenor brought gentle lyricism to Tito's Act 1 arias, and grew in stature with his Act 2 conflict, rendering the accompagnato “Che orror!” with a gripping sense of distress. Ever the role's pitfall, “Se all'impero” was triumphantly tackled. As Servilia, Christina Gansch brought a charming tone and a lovely presence, performing her role with aplomb. An animated Annio, Marianne Beate Kielland’s commanding “Tu fosti tradito” impressed, and she blended wonderfully with Gansch and Kožená in their duets. Salvo Vitale lent the booming vocal force to Publio that his scenic presence missed.
Less happy were the results of Rolando Villazón and Bettina Geyer’s co-directed semi-staging. Though allowing for some liveliness, it often fell into the static delivery that a semi-staged concert is meant to alleviate, with stock gestures abounding (not always the right ones: Annio seemed to suffer from acute pangs of the stomach instead of the heart). Inventiveness only proved obtrusive: the buffo-esque take on Annio and Publio was misguided, at best, and characters addressing anyone but the person their aria actually calls to hardly aided the dramatic delivery. Sandra Aigner’s black-and-gold costumes (though not always a flattering fit) and David Cunningham’s clever lighting design for the burning Capitol were welcome visual elements, but they could have worked just as well in a straight concert performance. For a cast so good that they made me wish for a proper recording, this was a sorry miss, hampering rather than uplifting an otherwise highly laudable performance.
