The Emperor Titus Vespasianus, the central character of Mozart’s final opera ‘La clemenza di Tito’, attempts to make the impossible possible and to forgive the unforgiveable. He even reaches out to those who seek to kill him and spares them any punishment.

The world premiere as part of the celebrations of the coronation of Leopold II in Prague in 1791 was accompanied by an unmistakable political statement: the benevolence and wisdom of the ruler would outshine all the intrigues of those who envied and opposed him. Mozart uses his unique talent for psychological-musical characterisation to depict the grating discord between reasons of state and personal emotions.

Is Tito a hypocrite or is he the first and most extreme democrat? Director Michael Schulz, the Artistic Director of the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, has regularly directed productions at the Semperoper Dresden, the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, Nationaltheater Weimar (including a highly respected ‘Ring des Nibelungen’), Staatstheater Kassel and the Salzburg Easter Festival. He is a guest at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein with Mozart’s political opera. read less