Margaret Mikulska asked me:

>Why do you think "La Clemenza" is mediocre?

I yield to no one in my love of Mozart, and the operas in particular,
but the level of invention in La Clemenza di Tito seems to me to be
consistently lower than that in any of Mozart's other operas from Idomeneo
on. I'd divide the failings into three categories, in ascending order of
importance:

1) Orchestration. With the exception of the solo clarinet/basset horn
passages, which I find more distracting than evocative, the opera has
little in the way of imaginative scoring. I can't think of any other mature
Mozart orchestral score in which the winds play a less distinctive role.

2) Melody. Can you imagine an entire Mozart opera with only one memorable
melody? The first act duet between Annio and Servilia is a lovely piece,
but that's about it.

3) Drama. Admittedly, in an opera seria one doesn't expect much in the way
of true musical drama-which didn't at all prevent Mozart from giving us
plenty in Idomeneo. But one at least expects an effective portrayal of the
characters' emotions in the music. For the most part the arias here are
little more than display pieces, at times even clashing with the emotions
the characters are supposed to be expressing. Sesto's big act one aria,
for example, seems much too calm for what he's feeling. Worse, some of the
arias-Tito's in act one come to mind-offer no emotion whatsoever; they're
utterly blank. Vitellia's second act rondo is a strong piece, but I'd trade
every aria in the opera for Fiordiligi's "Come scoglio" in Cosi fan Tutte,
a parody of opera seria which nails her character perfectly. I realize that
as a piece of musical drama, you can't really compare La Clemenza di Tito
with Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, or Die Zauberflote, but you
can compare it to Idomeneo, and for me it falls considerably short on all
counts: emotional resonance, richness of experience, just plain oomph. Even
the good things-Vitellia's second act aria, the act one finale-pale beside
the finest moments in Idomeneo: Electra's closing aria, the quintet, a
number of the choruses. I've heard it argued that La Clemenza di Tito is
supposed to be an austere score, in contrast with the much more overtly
expressive, small "b" baroque Idomeneo. But I don't hear austerity in
Clemenza. Gluck is austere; some of the numbers in The Magic Flute are
austere; Clemenza is simply uninspired. We know Mozart wrote it in a hurry,
even giving the recitatives to Sussmayer; basically it sounds like he wrote
it on automatic pilot. I realize, too, that the opera has recently come up
in critical estimation, and is regarded by many as on a level with
Idomeneo, or maybe even better. I just can't see it.

Peter