LE COURONNEMENT DE POPPÉE

Amidst passion, reasons of state and revenge, destinies become entwined under the mocking gaze of the gods. And whilst gossiping wet nurses, insolent pages and grumbling soldiers comment on the escapades of the powerful, Cupid scoffs at both Virtue and Fortune: tonight, he is the one calling the shots.

Claudio Monteverdi was seventy-five years old when he composed his final masterpiece. As Kapellmeister at St Mark’s since 1613, he embarked with undiminished boldness on the adventure of Venice’s public theatres. It was for the 1643 carnival that *The Coronation of Poppea* was created, based on a libretto by the libertine poet Busenello. With typically Venetian irony, he blends allegorical gods, historical figures and comic characters from the *commedia dell’arte*. High art rubs shoulders with farce, the sublime borders on the grotesque – and satire of power slips in under the guise of praise. For the genius of the work lies in its jubilant ambiguity: love triumphs, but it is an amoral love. The music embraces every nuance of the soul, from the harshest recitative to the most voluptuous arioso. The opera becomes a mirror of our desires – and of our absurdities.