L’incoronazione di Poppea

Opera musicale in one prologue and three acts [Venice, 1642]
by Claudio Monteverdi [1567–1643]
Gian Francesco Busenello [1598–1659], libretto
Semi-staged performance

450 years Claudio Monteverdi

Poppea/Fortuna HANA BLAŽÍKOVÁ
Nerone KANGMIN JUSTIN KIM
Ottavia MARIANNA PIZZOLATO
Seneca GIANLUCA BURATTO
Ottone CARLO VISTOLI
Drusilla/Virtú/Pallade ANNA DENNIS
Arnalta/Venere LUCILE RICHARDOT
Amore/Valletto SILVIA FRIGATO
Soldato I / Liberto FURIO ZANASI
Famigliari GARETH TRESEDER
Lucano ZACHARY WILDER
Damigella FRANCESCA BONCOMPAGNI
Mercurio/Littore JOHN TAYLOR WARD
Nutrice MICHAŁ CZERNIAWSKI
Soldato II ROBERT BURT

RICK FISHER lighting design
PATRICIA HOFSTEDE costumes
ELSA ROOKE, SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER direction

MONTEVERDI CHOIR
ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER conductor

Monteverdi’s final opera, “L’incoronazione di Poppea”, first performed in the 1642-43 carnival season in Venice, was unusual in its time for abandoning mythology in favour of a retelling of historical events. The opera portrays Poppea’s progression from Nero’s mistress to his acknowledged queen. In stark contrast to “L’Orfeo” and “Il ritorno d’Ulisse”, Monteverdi’s operatic swan-song is a celebration of carnal love and ambition triumphing at the expense of reason and morality. Set in the decadence of Imperial Rome it explores the emotional core of a group of characters as they form and dissolve alliances to achieve their amorous goals and social ambitions. From the outset Monteverdi achieves stark contrasts – the way, for example, he juxtaposes a scene in which two disgruntled sentry guards satirise Rome’s degenerate society and prepare us to despise Nero and Poppea, and then follows it with a portrayal of the two lovers as they exchange and entwine musical lines which leave us under their irresistible spell.