Glyndebourne's first night lived up to the buzz with a passion-filled masterpiece
L'incoronazione di Poppea
Glyndebourne Festival
The first night of the Glyndebourne Festival is always a hot ticket, but there was a particular buzz around 'incoronazione di Poppea. For the buffs, it was the return of a work to which Glyndebourne had given its first professional performance in the UK in 1962, and which had helped launch Monteverdi's masterpiece into the international repertoire. It was also a welcome British appearance of the acclaimed Canadian director Robert Carsen.
For the plutocrats who form the festival's fan base, it was another chance to see Danielle de Niese, the 28-year-old early music sex kitten. Her Glyndebourne appearance as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare in 2005 was one of those rare "a star is born" moments. Drafted as a late replacement, the beautiful soprano revealed in rehearsal abilities of which the director David McVicar took full advantage. She could sing, of course, and was at ease with the virtuosic coloratura, but she could also dance like Beyoncé. When she was onstage you couldn't keep your eyes off her. So expectations were high for this Poppea, and they weren't disappointed.
The opera is an everyday story of amoral folk, set amid the sex and violence of imperial Rome. The emperor Nerone's torrid affair with Poppea has made him determined to divorce his wife, Ottavia. Poppea's spurned lover Ottone tries to win her back, but she is star-struck at the thought of becoming empress. The Stoic philosopher Seneca attempts to moderate Nerone's plans but is ordered to commit suicide. Ottavia blackmails Ottone into attempting to kill Poppea. He fails and is exiled with his new squeeze, Drusilla, as is Ottavia. Nerone crowns Poppea his empress and lust conquers all.
It's a chamber piece, set in vast palace bedrooms and bathrooms, defined by great moving walls of scarlet curtains, and with floors covered with more scarlet drapes useful for the constant erotic tumblings. The cast are continually in and out of their clothes - the men in modern suits, and the women in Fifties retro. The sack-artist Poppea wears an oyster silk shift until she finally has to get dressed for her coronation.
In the prologue, Amore, goddess of love, sees off her rivals, Virtue and Fortune, and claims sovereignty over the affairs of the world. Carsen's acute direction emphasises this primacy of desire by having Amore remain, silent and unseen, in the subsequent scenes, choreographing the action with her golden arrow. Gamine, barefoot in a red velvet suit and archly perching on the furniture, Amy Freston's excellent Amore is a sardonic manipulator.
In Carsen's most disturbing scene, Nerone and his entourage boozily celebrate Seneca's death and sing Poppea's praises. What seems like horseplay, debagging one of their number and plonking him in a bath, turns to horror as Nerone fondly caresses, kisses, and then drowns him with a little help from his mates. A flock of servants with towels silently arrives to mop up the evidence. The chilling element is that the music here is some of the most beautiful in the opera.
The wise but ineffectual Seneca aside, they're a bad lot. All have committed, or incited, or condoned murder, and aren't at all bothered by that. Does anyone learn anything in this opera? Perhaps. After the achingly erotic duet ("Pur ti miro") between Poppea and Nerone that ends the work, Poppea is left alone onstage, clutching her trappings of imperial grandeur and with a look that implies a realisation of how badly this might (and in fact will) end.
In a strong cast the singing and acting honours go first to Alice Coote's expressive mezzo for her brattish psychopath Nerone, then to the noble bass of Paolo Battaglia's Seneca. The voluptuous de Niese has no opportunity for the show-stopping moves of Giulio Cesare, but sings affectingly, as does Tamara Mumford's Ottavia, especially in her "Addio Roma". Also worthy of note is the tenor Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke as Arnalta, Poppea's old nurse, played in drag like a six-foot-two Mrs Doubtfire: very funny in her gleeful anticipation of her new life at the imperial palace, but also, with her lullaby to Poppea, very touching. Emmanuelle Haïm conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with her usual spirit and acuity.
Until 4 July at Glynde, East Sussex, and for the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London SW7, on 31 July (www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008) - broadcast live on Radio 3 from 7pm
Pick of the week
Tosca
Until 5 June, Royal Opera House, London WC2
Jonathan Kent directs Micaela Carosi in Puccini’s melodrama.
Eugene Onegin
Until 1 July, Glyndebourne Festival
Maija Kovalevska stars in Tchaikovsky’s tragic love story.
Der Rosenkavalier
Until 7 June, English National Opera, London WC2
Richard Strauss’s masterpiece about a young Knight of the Rose.
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