Rome, 79 AD. The emperor Titus narrowly escapes the attack his best friend Sextus has plotted against him under pressure from his beloved Vitellia. Titus is faced with the heartrending choice of following his feelings and granting his friend clemency, or following his reason and condemning him. In La Clemenza di Tito Mozart returned to opera seria just a few months before his death. He had not worked in this genre since Idomeneo. For a long time this work, quite unjustifiably, remained in the shadow of his other great masterpieces, despite the fact that much of the music he wrote for this work is among the best in his oeuvre. Having previously staged Idomeneo, Ivo van Hove, now together with Ludovic Morlot, is presenting a new interpretation that will undoubtedly do full justice to the everlasting topicality, powerful drama and musical splendour of this mixture of friendship and revenge, passion and politics.