La Clemenza di Tito – review

La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart's great examination of the relationships between desire, power and altruism, is the most severe of his major operas, and can sometimes have more impact in concert than in the theatre, where excessive directorial intervention has a habit of muddling its moral insights. Though not perfect, this Barbican performance, with Louis Langrée conducting the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Deutscher Kammerchor, attained a remarkable sharpness of musical and psychological focus, drawing us into the opera's complex emotional world with great perspicacity.

At its centre was the powerhouse confrontation between Michael Schade's Tito and Alice Coote's Sesto. Schade, in terrific voice, presented Tito as a man of tremendous authority, whose moral idealism does not preclude anger or even terrifying outbursts of rage. Coote, meanwhile, was all tragic anguish and blazing coloratura, as conscience and desire erode Sesto's mind.

As Vitellia, whose machinations destroy their friendship, Malin Hartelius was waspish and bravely unsympathetic rather than obsessive and grand. She's a fine artist, but her voice, though beautiful, isn't big. Some of those notorious low notes didn't have the weight they should. Brindley Sherratt made much of little as Tito's solicitous sidekick Publio, but we could have done with a more evenly matched pair than Rosa Feola (exquisite) and Christina Daletska (tired-sounding and tremulous) as the lovers Servilia and Annio.

Much of the performance's force, however, was ultimately due to Langrée, who - apart from adopting slower speeds for Coote's arias – has a wonderful understanding of the tricky balance between majesty and urgency that characterises the score. The Kammerchor sounded glorious, though why they had to walk, distractingly, onto and off the platform before and after their numbers was puzzling.