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