Sunday, September 18, 2011

Miller and Kaufmann and Tito

Il Teatro Buce featured a weekend screening of Mozart's Clemenza di Tito, the Jonathan Miller production from Zurich in 2005.  Three things:
  • Jonathan Miller can be irritating, over the top, but he's always trying something.  A Mozart staging that looks like a cross between Tea with Mussolini and a lesbian wedding--actually, not nearly as crazy as it might sound.
  • Jonas Kaufmann is a great actor, in the sense that his Tito isn't remotely like his Werther or his Don Juan.
  • For once in his life, Mozart seems to have faxed it in.  But give him a break, he did it in twelve days to pay the maternity bills.  And he was thinking about Die Zauberflöte,  And the Requiem.  Oh, and dying.





1 comment:

Toni said...

I've yet to see Jonas Kaufmann. I hope he shows up on my TV screen soon.

Just wanted to say that Mozart faxing it in still, in my opinion, created a great little opera. Dumb plot...but that's true of Figaro. Love the difficult soprano aria (can't remember the name of it).