Opera in a prologue and three acts by Monteverdi, to a libretto by GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BUSENELLO (sung in Italian)
A concert performance by EARLY OPERA PROJECT of the Naples version of the score, live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Tired of his first wife, Octavia, Nero wants to divorce her and marry Poppea. Their passionate love affair and its outcome, the political scheming of Poppea, the opposition of Seneca, Ottone and Octavia, the intervention of the gods at a crucial moment in the action and various sub-plots - all these elements form part of one of the most ambitious and yet successful of operatic stories.
LONDON BAROQUE PLAYERS Musical director
JOHN TOLL (harpsichord) Prologue and Act 1
7.55* David Kimbell sketches the social background to opera in mid-17th century Venice.
8.10* Act 2
9.15* Roger Norrington, joint Artist Director of Early Opera Project, talks to
Nicholas Kenyon about his approach to Monteverdi; and the evolution of tonight's performing version of The Coronation of Poppea.
9.30* Act 3