L'incoronazione di Poppea

by Claudio Monteverdi
Boston Early Music Festival

Claudio Monteverdi’s final and most profound opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea, was composed in the early 1640s, and was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice in 1642, just fifty years after the “birth” of opera as an art form. Its themes remain as richly current and intriguing today as they were more than three and a half centuries ago: the abuse of power, the drive of lust, and the triumph of love. The story of the Roman Emperor Nero’s obsessive love for Poppea, widely regarded as the most beautiful woman in the ancient world, is at the smoldering center of Monteverdi’s masterpiece. Like a Shakespeare tragicomedy, there is a two-tiered society, an “upstairs-downstairs” in which comic servants puncture the illusions of their “betters,” while the “noble” characters surrender themselves to their passions. Above both of these, in the tradition of Greco-Roman mythology, is the domain of the gods, ruled by the smallest, yet most omnipotent: Amore.

Don't miss BEMF's remarkable new production of Monteverdi's sublime final opera, led by a world-renowned team of artistic directors and featuring a cast of 15 internationally-acclaimed singers, the Grammy-nominated BEMF Chamber Ensemble, and breathtaking Baroque sets and costumes.

Tickets: