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by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Marshall Pynkoski

Opera Atelier, Elgin Theatre, Toronto

April 22-May 1, 2011

Opera Atelier has reached another landmark.  It has now staged the first production in North America of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito on period instruments.  This is likely the most engaging production of Mozart’s final opera you will ever see.

As director Marshall Pynkoski acknowledged in his opening remarks, it is difficult to make virtue seem interesting.  Yet, Pynkoski succeeds brilliantly and shows that the opera is teeming with emotion.  Titus, who reigned 79-81 ad, may have been one of the few good Roman emperors after Nero, but Pynkoski sees that Mozart’s opera presents Titus with one temptation after the next to misuse his power for evil instead of good.  When the Senate won’t allow Titus (tenor Krešimir Špicer in a magnificent, deeply felt performance) to marry Berenice, he resolves himself to that loss.  He chooses Servilia (the bright-voiced Mireille Asselin) instead, but finds that she is in love with Annio (Mireille Lebel, very effective in this trousers role).  His most difficult challenge comes from his best friend Sesto (sung by male soprano Michael Maniaci with great richness of voice and interpretation).  Sesto has been urged to kill Titus by the vengeful Vitellia (the charismatic Measha Brueggergosman), whose love Titus has spurned.  Brueggergosman at first presents Vitellia simply as a seductress and villain, but as the opera continues she grows in emotional complexity--fear and regret competing with menace and anger--until by her final astounding aria she almost becomes a tragic figure.

Pynkoski has drawn highly detailed acting from the entire cast--more detailed, in fact, than one sees even in fine stage plays.  His one misstep is to encourage a comic response when Vitellia learns that Titus may actually seek her in marriage.  Humour here may cause some to view the winding course of Vitellia’s emotional evolution less seriously.  As usual with OA, the design by Gerard Gauci is splendid and the choreography by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg intricate and beautiful.  Conductor David Fallis leads the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in a vivid account of the score that naturally balances precision and expression.  With Špicer, Maniaci and Brueggergosman reaching new heights as performers, this is a production no opera-lover should miss.                   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2011-04-25.

Photo: Michael Maniaci, Curtis Sullivan, Kresimir Spicer, Measha Brueggergosman, Mireille Lebel and Mireille Asselin with Artists of Atelier Ballet. ©Bruce Zinger.