The Glyndebourne “Tito” (2017) Liveblogging Thread

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Welcome to the White Shirt live comment thread for Mozart’s “Clemenza di Tito” from Glyndebourne (2017), conducted by Robin Ticciati and staged by Claus Guth.

Cast List:

Tito – Richard Croft
Vitellia – Alice Coote
Sesto – Anna Stéphany
Annio – Michèle Losier
Servilia – Joélle Harvey
Publio – Clive Bayley

Libretto: English (html) Italian (pdf).

871 thoughts on “The Glyndebourne “Tito” (2017) Liveblogging Thread”

          1. I didn’t catch that as clearlly – read it more as “big brother taking you on your first hunt” (and teaching you to disrepect the wildlife, and life at large). If it is not that, it would be more of an evil Sesto?

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            1. That wouldn’t work with goodnatured Tito, though I guess you can say he learned to be good later. Bad Sesto being helped by good Tito works better as a whole.

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        2. still thinking about the bird killing scene, to me, Tito seemed the softer of the two boys as well, with Sesto crossing a border with the killing, still it does not make him genuinely bad in my opinion, just more prone to behaving uncontrolled? But in general, I find Sesto very hard to interpret (the murder), because it is an enormous crime that after all has been planned ahead to a certain point, so cannot be put down to ‘loosing ones head over the passion to Vitellia’. And maybe it makes more sense in a historical context, but since the Tito/Sesto friendship is given much emphasis, it’ still very hard for me to make sense of.

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          1. good point, getting out of control. I guess there is only so much logic one can expect from an opera libretto 😉 though, to be fair, partners have been known to get their lovers to kill the spouse, even when previously the lover and the spouse were in good terms… I always thought Sesto has some unspecified dissatisfaction with the system/Tito (as leader), so he starts talking seriously to Lentulo about the insurrection when Vitellia fans his doubts with her desire for vengeance.

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  14. Dehggi, I was wondering about what you wrote that there was something wrong with Sesto because he killed the bird, but maybe it depends on the historical time the scene takes place in whether it would be pathological brutality or more or less normal boys behaviour?

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            16. He’s doing pretty well for himself, though – inner circle of the emperor, marrying sister of emperor’s husband…

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            1. yeah. shooting spiders in particular. they were huge, size of your entire hand (but non poisonuos. all the same, scarry! ) and they always parked on corner with ceilings, way too high to reach (not that we would brave coming any closer)

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            3. That they are. Perhaps even goodie-two-shoes Tito, who is not as goodie-two-shoes here.

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        1. well, boots. The rest is attitude.

          – oh, the badger is back, now in nerd glasses (Servilia should really question her proclivities)

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  25. why isn’t Coote singing more Mozart?! (okay, Mozart has written too few scheming villainesses in mezzo range, but I mean other than that…)

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            2. i have audio with JDD, not audio w/ Garanca! (and want video with Garanca! no care about Garanca really.. but want video nonetheless (gosh this last word is so difficult to spell, makes no sense with the tongue stuck in middle of non and less.. )

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  31. mezzo duetting in the vein of “oh, the woes of bourgeois patriarchy! We can not touch when we sing about loving each other! And we are so stunted that evil women will manipulate us to be the downfall of our society! Alas! How does my hair look, btw?”

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        1. probably that old Macbeth addage: unless it involves unhealthy violence, murder, and hierarchies, it doesn’t count as truly MANLY feelings.

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  38. While I’m enjoying Croft, I wonder how the Sesto-Annio-Tito-Publio dynamic would have been with the younger Tito originally cast (who left due to artistic differences). The Tito-Sesto dynamic would have matched the projections better, at any rate.

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    1. wait, who was originally cast?
      (still waiting for a Tito to go there… but I think Dehggi already said that)

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          1. but he isn’t THAT much younger, is her? But the whole violence/hierarchic emotional abuse angle would have been interesting on someone whose presence is more gentle as default.

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  41. Annio speaking in favour of the marriage does not make much sense with Tito being so very mild and friendly, I suppose it is usually because he fears they will be found out and she may suffer for it?

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      1. Ok, yes, probably he is displayed like that here. But this was a point I liked better in the Salzburg production, where he had to react like this to keep Servillia from Tito’s uncontrolled anger (have made it through act I by now)

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            4. i dont know, must admit i dont know her work very well! and actually dont have her Nerone. but recall the moment i heard her Nerone clip i knew her singing works great for me…

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            5. I should have that one in the archives – I remember screening through for the 12 WS of Christmas last year.

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            6. What I have is actually the proper DVD edition – I’ll put it onto the list of travel file editions. Vologeso is up next!

              >

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  43. The double-breasted isn’t doing Annio much favor. But in a close-up, I think I once dated someone who dated someone who looked just like this. Ah, the power suits of the 90s.

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  45. Lest we forget about the violence angle, look how SUBTLY the magpie comes back *Eyeroll*

    As long as Croft keeps singing like this, I’d buy even a used car from him.

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    1. sigh. Yes.
      but the singing really is lovely.

      (Tito overhearing that ANOTHER woman wants to leave him kind of kills the latter build up to the aria?)

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      2. right, this must be Harvey!
        Would have fit right in with great hair TM

        (though I’m kind of glad we had hippie Bevan vibes to go with Prina’s Polinesso – such a great match)

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          2. Harvey is playing Cleopatra in Glyndebourne’s Giulio Cesare next year, which will be… I have no idea, actually. Quite different from DeNiese if she’s actually as reserved as she seems here?

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    1. yep, he’s not really that convincing with the ladies.

      Though I do get Sesto here in his attraction for Vitellia: more swagger than himself and Tito combined.

      (and, okay, this Vitellia is a little on the camp side. Not great detail anguish (Guth rather gives those moments to the men, anyway), but more stark lines. And it is FUN to watch.)

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    2. but this is lovely, and the clarinet adapts really well.

      (the image build up is epic though, with Vitellia sitting up there in the throne seat with a single spot, and Sesto stalking the shrubbery in his 1910s High school outfit)

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      1. Oh, sorry, no laughing at Crebassa, of course, but the clarinet player roving around her like that…, maybe it’s just me, but I found it so bad I couldn’t stop laughing. What a shame, because Crebassa was singing beautifully.

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    1. just thinking that a white middle class boy like Sesto can of course enter a building wearing a hoodie and carrying a gun and make it out to sing about it and they’ll talk about him being emotionally traumatized.

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  65. okay, but the line about “carnefice suo” really fits great with the whole dead magpie friendship panorama.

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      1. showing the shooting footage AGAIN right now is.

        (and in case we still didn’t get it, the float is burning. Look. How cleverly is symbolizes their friendship.)

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  66. it makes no sense that the building is burning but the dry grass is not. (Stéphany is growing on me here – very balanced up to know, but here more power, and still maintaining just enough balance)

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    2. projection and the lighthning, yes, but I’d probably go or a less ham-handed vid content. (but hey, it’s Guth, I shouldn’t expect a dead magpie to fly off…)

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            2. Well, it’s stage hair, not really a singer’s choice.so all we’re raking are the directors.

              >

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    1. there is absolutely no ping in the house! Has a nice darker edge, just a bit to give it oomph. You really need to listen a few times to get all his nuances. He’s such a pro and so talented too 🙂

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    1. and I’ll take a reed bundle! As a throwback to the lictores! Because this opera is originally set in Rome! Do you get how clever I am!

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        1. But do you need specifically a bundle of this sort to make that connection? He could have done folk dances with a peasant scene crew in Downton Abbey!

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    3. i saw this scene as more of going back to “home key” = the soothing ground when he felt the turmoil. like when in trouble with conflicting feelings you resort back to repetitive things that you love.

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        2. The shrubbery certainly is atmospheric, no objection there. Guth seems to have a hand for those kind of naturalistic settings evoking childhood memories in the audience. Like the wood in the Don G I saw in Berlin last year, I had actually forgotten that staging was by him, but yes, looked it up, that one was also done by Guth!

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          1. the Salzburg one, right? Also the voodoo mask Così with the invading shrubbery. He does have a tendency to copy himself.

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            6. yes we do! now you can leave comment on ze gif bar page! although Dehggi might tell you the turn around time is tricky , because i promise to take request, the i tell you to install ffmpeg, then i send out agents (me or Agathe, but we are recruiting more volunteer/victim 😉 ) and show how to cut and put in artistic vision needed for your request/project . Though you earn an exception, for running this joint so smoothly, i will do it! 😉
              ps- i think you also had some previous not-yet addressed involving Nerone and dancing… i think i made a try but somehow couldnt find a good angle/cut…

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            7. Oh, I will gladly contribute myself, but would need to lock myself up with the tutorial for a bit in that case.
              But yes, Petibon in the Così, and some Coote Vitellia…

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            8. (jeah, the only tricky thing is I and Agathe have similar system, and you and Dehggi have similar system.. and I’ve not done something on neither of your system. Am not sure if Agathe had succeeded in guiding Dehggi through an example? I’m thinking the next time i see either of you that I might need to play with your system a bit to figure out the “windows” syntax. Did it once on my former hausmate computer. The Most important if possible is not to have any space in your filename please. use underscores if needed. This would make things much easier.. directories included..)

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            9. No spaces. Got it.
              There should be tutorials online for that, too, right? System-specific? Once I am done with my deadlines, I can go scout.

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            12. I volunteer for gif-ing leather-jacket-PP! We could both do it and see what scenes we come up with. The stripping scene is total fun but might have too much movement? (I’m still learning on what works best in a slow-motion gif)

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            13. 🙂
              (see Anik, once you get it going, you can have all sorts of ideas!)

              Agathe, may i propose the following: could you please extract a 2-min clip around where this lether-jacket scene is and distribute to Anik, me and Dehggi? then I’ll send out “step1”, step2, step3, in succession (only after everyone report back). This way, we ‘ll all do it 🙂

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            17. I was thinking leather jacket, and couch/tanktop/beer. Oh, serious work discussion material. Coughweekendcough.

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            20. On a second note, good morning, and was this more effective than an alarm clock? 😉

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            21. Ju st what I needed in my deranged state (quite strong stuff yesterday :-), just amazing)
              Damn, need to hurry to get an ethics application fixed.

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      2. Oh, I like this. And playing up more to this rather than wallowing in the underlying doom of it would have been an interesting angle without the “born evil” shortcut.

        >

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            1. oh no no, now i was serious ;-), Tito looks so much in distress , then clutching to the reeds. You know how when there is so much gping on you grab hold of the things you’re familiar with. Ooooh now i get your point , the pony ❤

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            5. Haha, I was also immediately thinking of the pony! (And I do like Croft a lot, but let Barcellona hug the shrubbery and I’m going to be converted)

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