<<  -- 2 --  Robert Anderson    MIRACLE FOR BOHEMIA!

Ultimately we may not be too much concerned who shall end up after what vagaries as Titus's bride. He might have done much for Middle East peace if he had stuck to Berenice, sister of the Herod Agrippa before whom Paul appeared at Caesarea, and daughter of the tetrarch who enjoyed Salome's dancing to such effect. There are desertfulls of secco recitative to be trudged through before the ordained marriage can be achieved. The best music may well be in the overture, but a Mozart letter of October 1791 to his wife Constanze shows that the citizens of Prague had a nice perception of what was next best.

At the last performance of Tito, which happened also to be the night of The Magic Flute's première, the bewitching duet in A for Servilia and Sesto had to be repeated, and Stadler who played the clarinet obbligato for Publio, then corno di bassetto in the cause of Vitellia, was wildly applauded. Mozart was gleeful: 'Cries of "Bravo" were shouted at Stodla from the parterre and even from the orchestra -- "What a miracle for Bohemia!"' I clapped my hardest for John Payne in Stadler's role, if indeed it was he.

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