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, Sunday, April 14 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). In New York, THIRTEEN will premiere the opera on Thursday, April 11 at 8:30 p.m., with an encore showing Sunday, April 14 at 12:30 p.m.
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.
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 Titowas originally seen live in movie theaters on December 1 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 Metis a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.
Corporate support for Great Performances at the Metis provided by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury home builder®. Additional funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. This Great Performances presentation is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Agnes Varis Trust, and public television viewers.
For the Met, Barbara Willis Sweete directs the telecast. Jay David Saks is Music Producer, Mia Bongiovanni and Elena Park are Supervising Producers, and Louisa Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.
