Mozart was commissioned to write La Clemenza di Tito for the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Working with libretto by Metastasio, he based the plot on incidents in the life of the Roman emperor Titus and composed the opera during the same climactic period in which he completed Requiem and The Magic Flute. La Clemenza di Tito was first performed in Prague in 1791, a few weeks before the premiere of The Magic Flute in Vienna. Whatever enjoyment Mozart and Leopold II may have derived from the opera, it was short-lived; both composer and king were dead within a year of the debut.
Long neglected but now frequently performed and recorded, this Mozart masterpiece is once again a popular favorite of opera audiences worldwide. It is reprinted here from the authoritative edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig.