About the work
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria in two acts was premiered on 6 September 1791 at the Estates Theatre Prague—just over two months before his death and barely a month before the premiere of Die Zauberflöte. Commissioned for the coronation celebrations of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia, Mozart composed the work in about eighteen days using a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà after Pietro Metastasio. The opera represents Mozart's return to opera seria after fifteen years in comic and German works.
Plot
Roman Emperor Titus has a great love for the noblewoman Vitellia, but she wants to marry him only to become Empress. When Titus chooses other brides first, Vitellia manipulates her besotted admirer Sesto into leading a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor. The plot fails—Titus escapes; the wrong man is killed. Sesto, caught, refuses to implicate Vitellia despite being condemned to the arena. Vitellia finally confesses. Titus, in the famous display of clemency that names the opera, pardons Sesto, Vitellia, and the others, declaring that mercy is the greatest of imperial virtues.
Cultural significance
La Clemenza di Tito was underrated throughout the nineteenth century as a rushed occasional piece but has been critically reassessed since the late twentieth century as one of Mozart's finest operas. The work demands exceptional singers—Vitellia is a notoriously difficult dramatic soprano role, while Sesto (a trouser role for mezzo) is among Mozart's most psychologically rich parts. Modern productions by Ursel Herrmann and Peter Sellars have brought renewed appreciation for the opera's moral gravity and the sublime beauty of its late-Mozartean orchestration.