Òpera La clemenza di Tito

Mozart's opera on forgiveness, love and betrayal at the imperial court, with a staging by David McVicar and musical direction by Jordi Savall at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

La clemenza di Tito is an opera seria by Mozart that revolves around love, betrayal and forgiveness. Its protagonist is a solitary emperor, wounded by the disloyalty of those around him, who responds with a clemency that makes him a symbol of a higher political ethics. Facing him, the manipulative Vitellia and Sesto, torn between loyalty and desire, form a drama of great psychological intensity.

Mozart composed the work in just six weeks for the coronation of Leopold II in Prague, in 1791, and it premiered three months before his death. The music alternates the noble arias of Tito with Sesto's inner turmoil, such as the virtuosic ‘Parto, parto’, and with the penitential tension of ‘Deh, per questo istante solo’.

The staging is by David McVicar, with a production born at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and the musical direction is by Jordi Savall, whose reading stands out for its transparency and richness of colour. The cast brings together Jack Swanson as Tito, Marianne Crebassa as Sesto and Karine Deshayes as Vitellia. This performance comes to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.