Power, desire, and musical mastery: Monteverdi's last opera at the Royal Theater.
Following the success of L’Orfeo in 2023, Concerto Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Theatre are ready with another major work by Claudio Monteverdi: L’incoronazione di Poppea – The Coronation of Poppea – in a production led by Concerto Copenhagen and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
A psychological drama – where music and power merge
Where L'Orfeo, with its mythological universe, is considered the birth of opera as a genre, Poppea's Coronation is the first work to depict historical figures rather than mythological characters and gods. It is no longer morality and heroic deeds that prevail, but rather the immoral actions, ambitions, and desires of humanity. Based on the story of Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea, Monteverdi unfolds a psychological drama in which music and power merge in one of the most radical and relevant operas of the Baroque period.
Monteverdi wrote the work as his last opera in 1643, at a time when opera had moved out of the courts and into the newly opened public opera houses in Venice. Competition for the audience's favor was fierce, and the form of opera was evolving rapidly. L'incoronazione di Poppea was Monteverdi's response: a work that, in both music and drama, demonstrates his superior grasp of timing, characterization, and emotional depth.
No two setups are exactly alike
Musically, the opera moves away from the strict distinctions between recitatives and arias, towards a more lively, dramatically fluid form. Monteverdi lets the characters breathe through the music; from the seductive lines of Nero and Poppea to the sharp outbursts of the rejected Ottavia, framed by rich and colorful instrumentation, where the baroque orchestra not only accompanies but actively stages the drama.
Poppea's Coronation is a work without a single definitive musical score. Two very different manuscripts have been preserved, and every performance requires artistic choices: which scenes to include or omit, which music to play, how to arrange the instrumentation, and how much dramatic weight to give to each character. No two productions are alike. Nevertheless, and perhaps precisely because of this, Poppea's Coronation is a work with striking modern resonance: a drama without heroes, where love, ambition, and cynicism drive the action, and where Monteverdi, with a master's musical finesse, lays bare both the beauty and brutality of human relationships.