BaL 18.01.14 - Monteverdi: The Coronation of Poppea

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library

Tess Knighton with a personal recommendation from recordings of Monteverdi's final opera L'incoronazione di Poppea

CD versions:-

Bavarian State Orchestra, Ivor Bolton
La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina
English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
City of London Baroque Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Concerto Vocal, Rene Jacobs
Sadlers Well Opera, Raymond Leppard
Orchestra e Coro di Milano della RAI, Nino Sanzogno
Sergio Vartolo
Pro Arte Bassano Orchestra, Alberto Zedda

DVD versions:-

Baroque Orchestra if the Gran Teatre de Liceu, HArry Bicket (+ Blu-ray)
Les Artes Florissantese, William Christie
Le Concert d’Astree, Emmanuelle Haim
OAE, Emmanuelle Haim
Monteverdi Ensemble der Zurcher Oper, Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Concerto Vocal Koln, Rene Jacobs
Glyndebourne Chorus, LPO, Raymond Leppard
Norwegian National Opera, Alessandro de Marchi (+ Blu-ray)
Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, Marc Minkowski
Les Talens Lyriques, Christopher Rousset

[visualnickmos]

A fine - as always - list, but I fear I won't be listening to this BaL. The very thought of Monteverdi opera sends me into panic-laden catatonia!

[Nick Armstrong]

A fine - as always - list, but I fear I won't be listening to this BaL. The very thought of Monteverdi opera sends me into panic-laden catatonia!

Having been seduced by that 'classic' duet at the end ('Pur' ti miro' I think?), I've made several attempts to get into the rest, esp when I was in my big baroque opera phase some years back. I'm afraid I never found the rest anything other than dull. I shall listen to BAL but think it highly unlikely that the balance on my current account will be disturbed...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A fine - as always - list, but I fear I won't be listening to this BaL. The very thought of Monteverdi opera sends me into panic-laden catatonia!

There's no absolute certainty that Monteverdi actually composed this opera, though its quality suggests it probably is by him.

[Black Swan]

Well, I am for now the odd man out. I love Monteverdi and have several recordings and have the Opera on DVD. Who wrote the opera is in question but this doesn't deter me. I certainly respect everyone's opinion which is what makes this board great. We all have our likes and dislikes.

Thanks for EA for his excellent list.

[doversoul1]

Here’s another odd one out. I love Monteverdi.

Isn’t it just the last duet that is thought to be not by Monteverdi? Anyway, the duet is pretty but I much prefer Oblivion soave (Arnalta's Lullaby); far more subtle and affective. Hard to believe that this song is nearly 400 years old.

And thanks EA from me too for his excellent weekly list.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not for the first (nor, in all probability, the last) time do I find myself in the "oddies": I love Monteverdi, too, and am excited by the prospect of this BaL. I have only one recording of Poppea (Sergio Vartolo on the BRILLIANT Classics set of all three operas) and look forward to learning more about it.

[teamsaint]

There's no absolute certainty that Monteverdi actually composed this opera, though its quality suggests it probably is by him.

ah, like Shakespeare then.

Thanks for the listing, EA.
personally I am on the lookout for the best DVD of a Monteverdi opera. I think DS may already have told me, but I have forgotten.(oh and for the record I cannot abide all those " Shakespeare can't have been written by an ordinary bloke so it must have been written by an aristocrat" theories.)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

...oh and for the record I cannot abide all those " Shakespeare can't have been written by an ordinary bloke so it must have been written by an aristocrat" theories.)

The reason for the doubt with Poppea is the lack of any original manuscript. The two later manuscripts are evidently copies, but have many significant differences.

[vinteuil]

... a marvellous work ; I shall listen with interest.

A trivial typo in Eine Alpen's excellent list - la Venexiana are with Claudio Cavina. I like that version a lot.

I prefer Jacobs to Gardiner, and both to Harnoncourt.

I also have Ensemble Elyma with Gabriel Garrido on the K617 label.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A trivial typo in Eine Alpen's excellent list - la Venexiana are with Claudio Cavina.
.

[Barbirollians]

A fine - as always - list, but I fear I won't be listening to this BaL. The very thought of Monteverdi opera sends me into panic-laden catatonia!

Seconded . I saw a highly rated production of this once it was so static an opera I struggled to stay awake for more than half an hour - only the ROH's egregious Tamerlano topped it.

[Flosshilde]

I find it staggering that anyone could not be engrossed by this most contemporary (in subject matter) of operas.

[verismissimo]

I've only ever had the pioneering 1964 Glyndebourne recording on LP, conducted by Pritchard, with the lush RPO playing Raymond Leppard's arrangement. Lovely, but not at all PC - and nla.

Best of all, the Nerone of Richard Lewis - great British tenor!

[hedgehog]

The DVD of the production with Les Arts Florissants, William Christie, Philippe Jaroussky as Nerone and Daniele De Niese as Poppea is worth it imo just to see this pair in action.
Some may not like the staging, but I did, especially the costumes - modern, but making it timeless, rather than in a particular period.
Unfortunately as a whole it's a bit patchy as in particular Seneca (Antonio Abete ) & Ottavia (Anna Bonitatibus) were not in the same class.

The only other recordings I've heard are with La Venexiana (like the interpretation, but find the sound a little fuzzy) and Concerto Vocal, Rene Jacobs (the interpretation a little less - tempi - but the sound is good and a good balance between all the singers)


Monteverdi is very high on my list of 'can't do without composers'! (but then Bruckner isn't )