Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

MARTIN THEATRE 7:00 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2022 1:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 2022 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA JAMES CONLON, conductor IN ORDER OF VOCAL APPEARANCE: GUANQUN YU, Vitellia † EMILY D’ANGELO, Sesto # ASHLEY DIXON, Annio # MATTHEW POLENZANI, Tito JANAI BRUGGER, Servilia # KRISTINN SIGMUNDSSON, Publio APOLLO CHORUS OF CHICAGO STEPHEN ALLTOP, director LOUIS LOHRASEB, harpsichord, assistant conductor † HARRY SILVERSTEIN, stage director MOZART La clemenza di Tito ** Overture Act One –Intermission– Act Two Supertitles by Kim Witman † Ravinia debut # Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum ** First performance by the CSO and at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Featured Sponsor The Negaunee Foundation and Sponsor Howard L. Gottlieb & Barbara G. Greis . WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) La clemenza di Tito , K. 621 Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets and one basset clarinet or basset horn, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings, and basso continuo Joseph II, the long-reigning Holy Roman Em- peror, died on February 20, 1790, ending a period of enlightened absolutism in the Aus- tro-Hungarian empire. In keeping with En- lightenment ideals, the emperor acted and legislated on behalf of inhabitants of the realm—abolishing aspects of serfdom, insti- tuting education and public health reforms, changing the language of education and busi- ness to German, modernizing the Catholic Church, and introducing religious freedoms for Jewish, Protestant, and Orthodox believ- ers—without allowing his subjects any degree of self-determination. “Everything for the people, nothing by the people” became the imperial motto. His autocratic rule led to cen- sorship of the press and theater as well as ex- pansionist aggressions against neighboring lands. The exhausting pace of reform engen- dered unrest among all social classes and weakened the financial state of the empire. Many greeted the accession of Leopold II, the younger brother and successor of Joseph II, with optimism and relief. Leopold had ruled as Grand Duke of Tuscany for 25 years, a rel- atively peaceful and uncontroversial period marked by increased economic prosperity, re- forms of the penal code that eliminated capital punishment, and expanded personal liberties throughout the grand duchy. The duke and duchess also cultivated interests in theater and Italian opera seria in the Metastasian tradition. As the ascendant emperor, Leopold II had three coronation ceremonies—one for each royal title. His election as Holy Roman Em- peror took place on September 30, 1790, during resplendent celebrations in Frankfurt that included performances of German sing- spiels and Italian operas by Carl Ditters von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Barbara Krafft (1819) Dittersdorf, Antonio Salieri, Georg Benda, and Paul Wranitzky. Somewhat less extrava- gant festivities surrounded his coronation as King of Hungary and Croatia in Pressburg (now Bratislava) on November 15, 1790. Ten months passed before his final coronation as King of Bohemia. Leopold had become ab- sorbed by administrative and political minu- tiae. Widespread opposition to many of his brother’s policies compelled him to rescind several reform initiatives, forcing some for- mer serfs back into servitude, imposing eco- nomic austerity measures, and restoring the rights and influence of the nobility. On March 2, 1791, the imperial court in Vien- na announced preliminary plans for Leopold II’s coronation as King of Bohemia in Prague. In an unrelated action, the emperor dismissed the playwright Lorenzo Da Ponte (the libret- tist for three of Mozart’s comic Italian operas) as imperial court theater poet one week later. The Bohemian Estates, a loose assemblage of Czech nobles, assumed control over planning for the coronation, deciding on April 29 to in- clude German plays, Italian operas, and grand ballets among the celebrations. They contract- ed singer and impresario Domenico Guarda- soni on July 8 to take charge of the featured Italian opera seria . His responsibilities includ- ed overseeing the production budget, secur- ing the services of first-rate castrato and so- prano solo singers, and commissioning a new libretto based on Pietro Metastasio’s Titus to be set to music by a “famous composer.” Little official documentation of the composer selection process has survived. Antonio Sa- lieri, Kapellmeister at the imperial court, left important evidence in an August 1791 letter to Prince Paul Anton Esterházy: “I had to decline to write the opera which is being prepared for the coronation in Bohemia, for which opera the Prague impresario [Guardasoni] came to me five times to press the commis- sion. … I could not accept since I alone was attending to the affairs of the Court Theatre.” An announcement issued by the Royal Pro- vincial Presidency in Prague on September 3 Domenico Guardasoni, impresario of the Italian opera in Prague RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 41