A spewing volcano, smoking ruins, the burning Capitol, a putsch led by a best friend… No, we’re not in Hollywood’s latest thriller, but in Mozart’s last opera (well, composed at the same time as his Magic Flute). If the setting resembles a blockbuster and if Mozart casually worked in stylistic elements that he had assimilated over the course of his life as a composer, at times melding buffa into its opera seria genre, it must be said that the libretto and some of the recitatives, which in fact Mozart did not compose himself, are a little rough. Despite a few propagandist appearances by the chorus, the plot remains a confusing one of more chamber-sized betrayal, where each of its characters forgets the action as soon as they begin to sing of their similarly rather confused feelings. For although we love, we betray, and then we forgive or are forgiven. Some would have even read into this drama a criticism, or at least a lack of interest, on the part of Mozart towards Emperor Leopold II, whose coronation as King of Bohemia – in the middle of the French Revolution – served as a pretext for The Clemency of Titus‘s commissioning.