Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito is being presented for the first time in Malta at the Manoel Theatre between tomorrow and Sunday.

A double cast has been engaged to cover all four performances. The artistic direction and costume design are in the hands of the theatre’s artistic director Kenneth Zammit Tabona, who has conceived this production together with Denise Mulholland. And experienced opera director Harry Fehr has been brought over to oversee the stage direction.

But why choose Mozart, and this particular opera?

“My idea was to stage an opera which would be commensurate with the size and ambience of the Manoel Theatre,” explains Kenneth Zammit Tabona.

“Mozart’s dramatic works are well-suited to our theatre, but I wanted to avoid operas which have already been done in Malta before – such as The Magic Flute or the Mozart-Da Ponte collaborations. With these parameters in mind, Clemenza appeared to be the natural choice.”

La Clemenza di Tito dates from the final year of Mozart’s life and is one of the more intriguing of his operas.

The composer had nearly completed his final opera Die Zauberflöte, when he was approached by impresario Domenico Guardasoni to write a new work for the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia.

The chosen text, originally written by the great Pietro Metastasio in 1734, and adapted for Mozart by Caterino Mazzola, had already been set by several prominent composers, including Caldara and Gluck.

However, Mozart and Guardasoni felt that the libretto’s political undertones were appropriate to the occasion and that its traditional opera seria structure would meet Leopold’s Italianate tastes.

Mozart wrote the two-act opera in a matter of weeks (or just 18 days, if we are to rely on Mozart’s first biographer Niem­etschek). There are conflicting reports as to how it was received at its first performance.

This work, however, remained popular for many years after Mozart’s death and it was his first opera to reach London, where it was premiered on March 27, 1806.

Although it is still not one of the best known of the composer’s theatrical compositions, it has undergone something of a revival in recent years.

Arguably, the protagonist of Clemenza is not the eponymous Tito, but Vitellia, daughter of deposed Roman emperor Vitellio. Blinded by her ambition to become empress, Vitellia convinces Sesto to betray and assassinate his friend the Emperor Titus, who will soon be marrying Sesto’s sister Servilia.

The plot is discovered and Sesto is condemned to death, but in a great show of generosity (the ‘clemency’ of the title) Tito pardons both his vacillating friend Sesto and the scheming Vitellia.

Tito and Vitellia were actual historical figures but the plot details are fictitious. As Zammit Tabona points out, Metastastio was not the first writer to use ancient Rome as a source of inspiration for his fiction. Nor would he be the last.

“Robert Graves immediately comes to mind, and I must admit that my image of Vitellia bears more than a passing resemblance to Livia in Graves’s I, Claudius.”

La Clemenza di Tito does not present us with history but rather with an 18th century reimagining of Ancient Rome. To express this concept effectively, Zammit Tabona hit upon the idea of using as stage scenery a reproduction of two of Giambattista Piranesi’s celebrated engravings of Roman remains.

La Veduta dell’Arco di Tito serves as backdrop to the first act and is replaced in the second act by the Veduta dell’ Anfiteatro Flavio, detto il Colosseo. The stage flooring, on the other hand, will feature a reproduction of Michelangelo’s designs for the Campidoglio. The Roman setting is unmistakeable, but it will also be immediately clear that this is antiquity as seen through the eyes of later artists.

The preparation of the scenery and stage props has been entrusted to Mario Bartoli, a long-standing scenographer at the Manoel Theatre who learnt his art at a Venetian bottega and honed it over tens of productions at the theatre.

I meet him in a large hall at the Mediterranean Conference Centre complex, where Bartoli and an assistant are busy painting the backdrop for the second act. A half-finished monochrome reproduction of the Colosseum greets me, stretched horizontally on the floor.

Mozart’s dramatic works are well-suited to our theatre, but I wanted to avoid operas which have already been done in Malta before

It is already impressive as it is, let alone when completed.

“Scenography is an art,” Bartoli declares, “but it’s literally back-breaking!”

He explains that the challenge set by this Clemenza is two-fold. On the one hand, as in any theatrical production, the backdrop must be painted keeping in mind that the audience will be seeing it from a distance. In other words, the scenery will have to work from the audience’s perspective. In this particular production, however, the real difficulty lies in reproducing as faithfully as possible the Piranesi etchings which provide the scenery to the opera.

“These works of art are so well known that if we depart from the originals it would be immediately apparent.”

And so, apart from some minor amendments to adapt the engravings to the size of the theatre, an enlarged version of these famous etchings (27 feet by 30 feet) will find its place on the Manoel’s stage.

This concern to evoke the period of the opera’s composition is also reflected in Zammit Tabona’s costume designs. He describes them a “vaguely Directoire”, a reference to the elegant neo-Classical style which was expressed in the architecture, fashion and decorative arts of late 18th century France. He, however, did not wish to follow this style slavishly and he admits that there is also an element of fantasy in his drawings.

“Take Sesto, for instance. Although he wears a military uniform, I’ve given him a very long train which would not have featured in authentic military apparel.

“His part was originally sung by a castrato, and castrati such as Farinelli generally wore long trains when they performed, hence my design.”

Incidentally, in two of the four performances, the role of Sesto will be sung by leading countertenor David Hansen alternating with mezzo-soprano Sian Cameron on the remaining two nights.

“Mozart himself gave the option of using a mezzo instead of a countertenor or castrato. We thought it would be interesting to use both in our production.

“It hints at a certain sexual ambiguity in the character of Sesto, who is torn between his close friendship with the emperor and his attraction towards Vitellia.”

Zammit Tabona adds that this production gives a psychological reading of the opera and that this, in turn, inspired his costume designs.

Servilia’s attire, for example, is very flowy and features pale blues, giving her an almost ‘girly’ look. On the other hand, Vitellia is as ‘imperial’ as Tito himself, if not more, with her predominant colours being reds, purples and gold.

“Camilleri Paris Mode, who are sponsoring the fabric and materials for the costumes, managed to source for me this extremely rich red and gold brocade which is exactly what I had conceived for this role.”

Seamstress Dorothy Ebejer describes the fabric as among the finest she has ever worked on – “a pleasure to hold”.

The manpower needed to stage an opera is mind-boggling. Apart from those who work behind the scenes, the cast of soloists – which comprises an interesting mix of distinguished foreign artists, seasoned local singers and upcoming soloists – this production will also feature the Manoel Theatre’s Opera Chorus trained by Alexander Vella Gregory and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Damiano Binetti.

One should not forget, however, all those who work behind the scenes to make such a production possible. Unsur­prisingly, the costs involved are also impressive.

An ambitious project? Undoubtedly. But with La Clemenza di Tito it promises to get off to a royal start.

• La Clemenza di Tito runs at the Manoel Theatre from tomorrow to Sunday. Tickets are available from www.teatrumanoel.com.mt, by sending an e-mail to bookings@teatrumanoel. com.mt or by calling 2124 6389.