Clemenza di Tito 1981Cologne Opera
Read more about the opera Clemenza di Tito
In 1981 it was a surprise when the Cologne Opera's return visit was announced, only a year after their first appearance in Edinburgh. But their chief conductor, Sir John Pritchard, had a connection going right back to the earliest years of the Festival. This time they brought another Mozart piece, Clemenza, the Rossini Barber, and a recent British piece, Musgrave's Voice of Ariadne, unjustly neglected since its Aldeburgh premiere. Scottish Opera provided a lively modernised treatment of Gay's Beggar's Opera, not admired by everyone. Perhaps the greatest delight of all came from a rare staging of Leonard Bernstein's bubbly operetta Candide. This was put on in the Assembly Hall by Clive Perry's Birmingham Rep company, alternating with As You Like It.
Ponnelle staged this late Mozart classic in several major opera houses. His basic concept was to costume the characters in late 18th century court dress, contemporaneous with Mozart himself, with a setting that introduced appropriate classical references. When he first worked on the opera, that seemed acceptable, but with hindsight it does all seem very lightweight.
