Opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Based on a Libretto by Metastasio
Premiere: September 6, 1791, Prague

October 20, 22m, 24, 2006
Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College
Boston, Massachusetts
Sung in Italian with projected English titles

Tito:  Paul Austin Kelly, tenor
Vitellia:  Wendy Bryn Harmer, soprano
Servilia:  Kendra Colton, soprano
Annio: Krista River
Servilia:  Kendra Colton
Sesto:  Phyllis Pancella
  
Conducted by Gil Rose
Directed by Brad Dalton
Scenic Design by David Newell 
Costume Design by Nancy Leary
Lighting Design by Christopher Ostrom

Opera Boston will present its first opera by Mozart in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.  La Clemenza di Tito is an opera seria composed for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia. 

Tenor Paul Austin Kelly will make his company debut as the first-century Roman Emperor Titus Vespanius, whose choice among three women provokes the fiery Vitellia to hatch an assassination plot.  Mr. Kelly has appeared locally as Nadir in Boston Baroque’s 25th-anniversary concert presentation of the Mozart collaboration The Philosopher’s Stone and can be heard on the Telarc recording of the same.  Mr. Kelly has distinguished himself nationally and internationally in bel canto and early classical repertory, appearing as Almaviva in il barbiere di Siviglia with the Metropolitan Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and London’s Royal Opera.  He has also performed as Narciso in il turco in Italia, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. 

Opera Boston welcomes back soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer as Vitellia.  An alumna of the Boston University Opera Institute, Ms. Harmer has participated in the Metropolitan Opera’s exclusive Lindemann Young Artist program for the past several seasons, and she has won a Marilyn Horne Foundation award for promising young recitalists.  Ms. Harmer’s most recent appearance with Opera Boston was as Edith in 2002’s The Pirates of Penzance; more recently, she has appeared in Parsifal and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera. 

Soprano Kendra Colton makes her Opera Boston debut as Servilia.  She has been a frequent and versatile artist in Boston, appearing in Ariodante as Dalinda with the Handel and Haydn Society; in Thésé with Boston Early Music Festival; and with Emmanuel Music, with whom she can be heard on the recordings of St. John Passion and selected Bach Cantatas.  In 2002, Ms. Colton sang the title role in the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s performances of Foss’s Griffelkin, and can be heard on the Chandos recording of that work. 

La Clemenza di Tito will be directed by Brad Dalton, who returns to Opera Boston after directing Gluck’s Alceste for Opera Boston and Boston Baroque in 2005.  Dalton sees the piece as a companion to Die Zauberflöte, with which it is contemporary, calling it “the vision of an ideal world” and noting that Tito, “in his compassion and understanding, embodies the idea of Gandhi's famous quote, ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’”  Dalton will emphasize the characters and their lively plotting, spying and intrigue, steering the opera “as it proceeds at a frantic pace to its gorgeous final moments of hope and redemption.”

Costume designer Nancy Leary—whose work with Opera Boston includes La vie parisienne, The Crucible, The Consul, and Lucrezia Borgia—returns for Clemenza.  Lighting Designer Christopher Ostrom continues his residency with Opera Boston for the upcoming season.