La Clemenza di Tito in the Screening Room

Two weeks ago, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presented La Clemenza di Tito in the best production of Mozart's problematic last opera that I have ever seen. The genius young director, James Darrah, and his collaborators (co-director Raviv Ullman, production designer Steven C. Kemp, costume designer Molly Irelan, and lighting designer Pablo Santiago), were all in top form, breathing life into a static opera seria with flair, humor, and intelligence. They also inspired the student singers into assured, bravura performances, something I have never experienced at the SF Conservatory before.

The Roman Empire setting was updated to early 20th Century Media Empire, with Tito standing in for a Hearst or Howard Hughes type of mogul. During the overture, a silent newsreel prologue was projected, detailing the breadth of the empire ("Newspapers! Movies! Television!") and introduced the characters who are possible Empress choices for Tito. The opera played out in a small, tiered, luxurious screening room facing the audience, with two walls flanking it onstage that hosted a range of projections that were alternately abstract, live video, or pre-shot film.

It was the most creative use of projected imagery I have seen on an opera stage, and all the more potent for not being overused. The plot springs into action with Vitellia, played by the huge-voiced Em McAllister above, seducing Tito's best friend Sesto into an assassination plot as vengeance for being spurned in the Empress selection process. The Capitol/Studio is set on fire and in a coup de theatre the curtain opens on Act Two with the screening room set trashed and burnt.

Tito survives, however, and there is a happy finale where the principals and chorus sing a paean to Tito praising his magnanimous clemency after he pardons Sesto and Vitellia for their treachery.

The student singers were all superb, at different levels of achievement. From left to right, soprano Monica Slater as Servilia sang her two arias with pure beauty. Lindsay Martin as Annio was a hilarious stage presence who looked outrageously striking in her outfit even though she was playing a man. Hope Nelson as Sesto gave a hell for leather performance vocally and dramatically, and just about ran away with the show. Jackson Allen as Tito was a perfect smooth young mogul, surrounded by cameras and bodyguards as if he was born to it, and he negotiated the difficult music well.

Mozart wrote the opera fast on a commission in 1791 for a royal political event in Prague to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia. The libretto was a slapped-together affair of earlier operatic settings of the same story. The music, however, is as great as anything Mozart ever wrote, and to hear it live and performed with such conviction was a joy. The playing of the 28-person student orchestra was delightful, with a special standout in Lindsey Ha on the clarinet and basset horn. The conducting by Curt Pajer (above center in the tuxedo) was terrific Mozart.

Though the theme is about the benevolence of an autocrat, director James Darrah had other ideas, and came up with a subversive ending, where Tito proclaims his clemency while Vitellia and Sesto are sitting in the front chairs gagged and hooded, Guantanamo style. Meanwhile, two characters arrive dressed in the same costumes and become the new Vitellia and Sesto for the cameras, rather like favorite soap opera characters being swapped out with a new actor. Because this production was double cast for its two performances, Darrah was able to use Rayna Mia Campbell as the New Vitellia and Stella Hannock as the New Sesto, and they sang in the final ensemble in place of the originals. The doubling also extended to the role of Publio, Commander of the Bodyguards, who was sung by the basses Will O'Brien on Friday night and Dante Mireles on Sunday afternoon, with one being a silent supernumerary for the other in both performances.

I returned for the second cast on Sunday afternoon because I was so enthralled with the production. The second cast had different strengths and weaknesses from the first, but they were all very good too. Leah Finn (above) as Annio was more boyish than her predecessor, less funny and more serious, which was true as well of Stella Hannock as Sesto. Chea Kang's voice was so gorgeous as Servilia that you wished she had more than two arias. In an interesting gender switch, Tito was played by Emily Tate Daniel who was a completely convincing, swaggering narcissist. Dante Mireles (above) won the bass competition as Publio, but he and Will O'Brien worked well together in both shows.

The other reason I went back to the second performance was because Rayna Mia Campbell as the New Vitellia made my ears tingle in the finale. As the Original Vitellia on Sunday afternoon, she surpassed expectations with a dramatic, seductive command of the stage and a voice that is probably going to be heard in major opera houses all over the world. She is a major talent.