L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPEA

Music: Claudio Monteverdi
Libretto: Busenello
L’incoronazione di Poppea is Claudio Monteverdi’s (1567-1643) last opera. It was premiered at Teatro di Giovanni e Paolo in Venice in 1642 and was given its first professional production at Glyndebourne in 1962.
The plot, by librettist Busenello, is suggested in the prologue with the apparent triumph of Love over Virtue and Fortune. Love, reflected through Nerone’s blind infatuation for the amoral and relentlessly ambitious Poppea, is powerfully illustrated in one of the most beautiful love duets ever written at the conclusion of this masterpiece.
The internationally acclaimed director Robert Carsen will direct this new production for the 2008 Festival. Baroque specialist, Emmanuelle Haïm, will conduct the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The 28 year old Australian-born and American-trained soprano sensation Danielle de Niese, following the unanimous critical acclaim in her breakthrough role as Cleopatra in Glyndebourne’s Giulio Cesare in 2005, will return as Poppea, with Alice Coote in her Glyndebourne debut, as Nerone.