Undoubtedly talk of Tristan und Isolde will dominate Parterre this week, so I offer an alternative to those who aren’t fans of Wagner: Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito from the house where it premiered. 

It’s always a special occasion for me when I can hear an opera in the house in which it premiered.  To date, the earliest examples have been within the powder blue brocade-covered walls of Prague’s glorious Stavovské divadlo (Estates Theatre).  Here Mozart led the world premieres of his Don Giovanni (1787) and La clemenza di Tito almost three months to the day before his death on 05 December 1791.

With the exception of American mezzo Kate Aldrich (who counts Carmen and Adalgisa on her Met résumé) in the role of Sesto, the cast is made up of company members of the Národní diavdlo Praha (National Theatre Prague).

While he has a wide repertoire, Jaroslav B?ezina (Tito) has long been the company’s Mozart specialist, and with good reason: the voice seems build perfectly for the timbre and line which are hallmarks of that composer’s compositions for tenor.  Pavla Vykopalová (Vitellia) is a true Zwischenfach soprano who alternates mezzo and soprano repertoire.

One cast member decided to the break the habit of remaining bound to one theater for the duration of his career.  Bass-baritone Adam Plachetka, currently singing Leporello at the Met, was all of 21 when he sang the small role of Publio in this performance.  I first heard him the previous year as Masetto and remarked to Intendant Ji?í He?man, “You have the makings of a great Don Giovanni here,” to which he replied, “Don’t think we haven’t thought of that already.”

Plachetka joined the ensemble of Wiener Staatsoper (where he remains a company member) in 2010 as Schaunard and has sung close to 200 performances there.  He has since sung at the Salzburger Festspiele, Glyndebourne, Teatro alla Scala, the Monnaie, Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and other major international stages.

His first big break came in September 2011 when, as the cover, he went on in the title role of Don Giovanni at Wiener Staatsoper, singing the entire run of performances.  He is now established as the company’s go-to Giovanni.  Another Mozart specialist, he has, at age 31, already sung both Figaro and Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and was the first artist in the company’s history to sing Figaro, Guglielmo, and Giovanni in a single season.  He recently took on his first Wagner role, the Herrufer in Lohengrin, and adds Mustafa in L’italiana in Algeri to his buffo repertoire along with Dulcamara.

Watching Plachetka leap from comprimario roles to larger and larger assignments at major houses has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my opera-going for the last decade.

Photo: Ilona Sochovora