La Clemenza di Tito / Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lawrence A. Johnson
Chicago Classical Review
Polenzani was sensational, going beyond the plaster saint to create a rounded and conflicted human emperor—angry at the betrayal of those he trusted and conscious of his duty yet also wanting to forgive his enemies."
“Tito is not an easy character to make believable, but Polenzani does so in a striking performance whose beauty of tone, elegance of line and gravitas of manner remind us there are few finer Mozart singers around. The Evanston-born Ryan Center grad makes something memorable of all three arias, while he and DiDonato heat things up in the second-act scene where the tortured Tito assails the equally tortured Sesto for betraying their friendship.”
— John Von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
“There are not many great tenor roles in Mozart operas, so one was thankful for the opportunity to hear Matthew Polenzani as the compassionate, besieged emperor. What a pleasure to hear Mozart sung with the power and refinement Polenzani brought to Tito’s music.
Dramatically, Polenzani was sensational, going beyond the plaster saint to create a rounded and conflicted human emperor—angry at the betrayal of those he trusted and conscious of his duty yet also wanting to forgive his enemies. Polenzani’s explosive rage at Sesto’s betrayal—with a hint of a homoerotic relationship going beyond mere friendship—brought a jarring intensity to their Act 2 confrontation, the tenor shaking DiDonato so violently, one feared he would loosen a filling.”
— Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review