L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA

Bad men take as much delight in their shame as good men in noble things.

Sénèque, On Happy Life, 58 A.D.

Under the bloody reign of young emperor Nerone, nothing and no one can stop the rise to the throne of beautiful and immoral Poppea. The most flamboyant Shakespearean dramas as well as the best of today's series pale in comparison of Monteverdi’s last opera when it comes to lucidly portraying the passions of humankind – from bedroom to political arena. The Coronation of Poppea combines sublime and grotesqueness through a portrait gallery of ambivalent protagonists and colourful supporting characters, in a unique freedom of tone and musical inventiveness. Leonardo García Alarcón, who made us rediscover Cavalli's operas (Elena in 2013 and Erismena in 2017), is back with the generous and imaginative musicians of Cappella Mediterranea. They can rely on a sensational team of young singers, some of whom were part of the Festival's Académie. Ted Huffman invites them to a role play that brings to light the mechanisms of human society as an eternal comedy of power and seduction.