It’s the most vivid of early operas – but not much goes well in this curiously inert, unmoving staging
With its sophisticated, potent mixture of sex and power, death and betrayal, Monteverdi’s 1643 The Coronation of Poppea is the most vivid of early operas. It is the first opera we know of that uses a historical plot, in which the Emperor Nero brutally dismisses his wife Octavia in order to crown his mistress Poppea as Empress. With its minimal instrumental resources, the focus is entirely on the erotic and chilling text. As such, with a contemporary edge, it could be an ideal vehicle for a small-scale touring show for a modern audience; it must have seemed an apt choice to open a new regime at English Touring Opera under general director Robin Norton-Hale.
Sadly, not much goes well in this curiously inert, unmoving staging. There is some strong singing from Jessica Cale as the sultry Poppea, but little tension is achieved between her and Martha Jones’s unconvincing Nero, and they move stiffly around the am-dram set; even the exquisite closing duet is awkwardly staged. Trevor Eliot Bowes as Seneca, the wise philosopher who embraces death, is firm in declamation and moving at his end, unlike Feargal Mostyn-Williams’s Otton, an inadequate counter-tenor for such a major role. At the top of the set, the gods observe and comment brightly. But even the most talented among the cast, such as Elizabeth Karani’s Drusilla and Kezia Bienek as Ottavia, are not encouraged to sing stylishly.
There are two other underlying problems in the show. The new English version is a valiant attempt by Dr Helen Eastman to make Busenello’s text hip and relevant for today, full of colloquialisms. No problem with that in principle, but the realisation results in a mess of grinding gears as Monteverdi’s perfectly judged recitative is continually mis-accented and Eastman’s text jars against the vocal lines.
The second issue is the new version of the score by conductor Yshani Perinpanayagam. There are some fine moments where the agile continuo group are allowed to carry the score, notably in the gorgeous lullaby to Poppea that Amy J Payne as Arnalta sings winningly, but they are the exception. It is a mere half-century ago that we began to take Monteverdi’s exquisite score at its word, and to rely on his ultra-light scoring. One might imagine a thoroughly contemporary approach to re-scoring the piece, but Perinpanayagam’s solution in adding single wind and brass instruments plus obtrusive percussion is both old-fashioned and poorly done.