5/5. In the final year of Monteverdi's life, the opera that is now regarded as his masterpiece was produced in Venice: L'lncoronazione di
Poppea. Donald Macleod introduces extracts from this highly original work of ruthless ambition, love, lust and struggle for power. L'lncoronazione di Poppea (excerpts)
Sylvia McNair (soprano: Poppea),
Dana Hanchard (soprano: Nero), Anne Sofie von Otter (soprano: Octavia/Venus), Francesco Ellero d'Artegna (bass: Seneca), Mark Tucker (tenor: Lucan), Marinella Pennicchi (soprano: Cupid/ Damigella), English Baroque Soloists, director John Eliot Gardiner
Repeated on Thursday at 12 midnight