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Arts & Culture

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET: La Clemenza Di Tito

Barbara Frittoli as Vitellia and Elīna Garanča as Sesto in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
Courtesy of Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Barbara Frittoli as Vitellia and Elīna Garanča as Sesto in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."

Airs Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 12 p.m. on KPBS TV

Elīna Garanča, star of the GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET broadcasts of "Carmen" and "La Cenerentola," appears in the trouser role of Sesto in the Met’s rare revival of Mozart’s opera of ancient Rome, "La Clemenza di Tito." Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham hosts the telecast and conducts backstage interviews with the stars.

Giuseppe Filianoti as the title role of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
Courtesy of Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Giuseppe Filianoti as the title role of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
Lucy Crowe as Servilia and Kate Lindsey as Annino in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
Courtesy of Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Lucy Crowe as Servilia and Kate Lindsey as Annino in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
A scene from Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."
Courtesy of Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
A scene from Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."

Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti takes on the title role of the Roman emperor Titus, the target of an assassination scheme by the vengeful Vitellia (Barbara Frittoli).

American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey and English soprano Lucy Crowe co-star as the young lovers Annio and Servilia in this performance of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle‘s stylized 1984 production, which is conducted by Baroque specialist Harry Bicket.

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Critics praised the production in November: “The cast, headlined by the lustrous-voiced Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, is consistently top-notch…[Garanča] embodies the plight of the anguished young hero with moving restraint, and in her two arias she produces luminous sounds that seem to linger suspended in the air like shining pearls,” wrote the Associated Press’ Mike Silverman.

James Jorden of the New York Post hailed it as a “superb revival,” adding that the production “was more than the sum of its excellent parts, thanks to the imaginative and vigorous conducting of Harry Bicket,” and predicted that the production with its “1700s costumes and Roman ruins against a palette of warm brown-blacks and parchment whites… should look particularly handsome when the opera is telecast…”

"La Clemenza di Tito" was originally seen live in movie theaters on December 1st as part of the groundbreaking THE MET: LIVE IN HD series, which transmits live performances to more than 1900 movie theaters and performing arts centers in 64 countries around the world.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. GREAT PERFORMANCES is on Facebook.

GP at the Met: La Clemenza di Tito Preview

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""La Clemenza di Tito

"Elina Garanca in "La Clemenza di Tito"

"Elina Garanca performs in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito.""

"La Clemenza di Tito: "Se all'impero"

"Giuseppe Filianoti performs "Se all'impero" from Mozart's opera "La Clemenza di Tito.""