Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christine Barbaux, Carol Vaness :: Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Complete Opera [Live Recording] - Salzburg Festival 1988

Quite Good

R. Albin | Ann Arbor, Michigan United States | 05/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A live recording from the Salzburg Festival, this recording is somewhat technically limited but contains very good performances by the singers and excellent orchestral work. In the second rank of Mozart operas, La Clemenza contains a great deal of beautiful vocal music with some typically excellent choruses, duets, and solos. An interesting question is why Mozart returned to conventional opera seria after the innovations of The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and the great opera buffas. Part of the answer is that La Clemenza was commissioned in honor of Leopold II's installation as King of Bohemia, so a conventional tribute/exhortation to a wise ruler was expected. Mozart is also said to be in something of a rush to complete the commission and was ill. There may be a deeper reason for the conventional nature of La Clemenza. Mozart's prior operas express not only musical innovation but also some aspects of Enlightenment ideology and its critique of aristocratic society. In 1791, the French Revolution was underway and suddenly, criticizing traditional society looked much less attractive. Mozart may have felt a need to return to traditional forms and traditional ideology."