Review: new production of Poppea at Glyndebourne (18 May)
Faye xx
Nerone - Alice Coote
Ottone - Christophe Dumaux
Ottavia - Tamara Mumford
Arnalta - Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Nutrice - Dominique Visse
Seneca - Paolo Battaglia
Valletto - Lucia Cirillo
Drusilla - Marie Arnet
Mercurio/Consul - Trevor Scheunemann
Damigella - Claire Ormshaw
Littore/Consul - Patrick Schramm
Soldato2/Liberto/Tribune - Peter Gijsbertsen
Fortuna - Sonya Yoncheva
Virtù - Simona Mihai
Amore - Amy Freston
Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment - Emanuelle Haim
Director: Robert Carsen
***
Well, I can’t say it was a riveting production – no set whatsoever,
just a bare stage with a huge red curtain that got moved about at
various angles and another red curtain which got draped on the floor a
lot. Occasionally they would push a mattress onto the stage or a few
chairs, but that was about it. The lack of scenery put extra focus
on the singers but fortunately there was some good acting on display
and the direction was generally quite intelligently thought out. But
I did find it dragged and was quite dull in places. I found myself
almost missing the ENO production’s radio-controlled plastic squid –
that would certainly have livened things up a bit! Still, Nerone
knocked 2 chairs over and trashed a dinner table in a fit of rage, but
that was about as exciting as it got.
The costumes were modern dress – Danielle de Niese’s Poppea spent most
of the opera lounging about on the mattress in various beige satin
negligees, showing everyone what nice legs she has. For the finale
she changed into a red dress that looked almost identical to the one
Melisande wore in the ROH’s recent dire production. Most of the male
characters were in modern business suits, with Nerone’s guards dressed
like FBI agents with guns and walky-talkies. Amore was in a red
crushed velvet trouser suit with short dyed-red hair and was always
hanging around in an irritating manner. There was a rather naff bit
at the beginning where Fortune (in a gold evening dress) pushed her
way into the front row of the stalls and evicts a nun (Virtue) from
her seat. They were talking to each other in English at first and
then suddenly started singing in Italian, which didn’t really work.
The singing was of a generally high standard, with Alice Coote
(Nerone) standing out in particular with her rich mezzo voice. Just
a shame that she didn’t look remotely like a man, despite her best
efforts with the acting. Perhaps it would be easier to be convincing
if she were taller, but I really enjoyed her vocal and dramatic
performance – even if she did look like a lesbian in her bedroom
scenes with De Niese. There was a very strange “gay” scene in Act 2
where Nerone and some of his friends stripped some bloke down to his
underpants, molested him in a bathtub for a bit and then drowned
him. I don’t remember seeing that happen in the ENO production last
year. They were clearly trying to bring out Nerone’s volatile and
depraved nature – there was a moment at the end when he lost his
temper with Poppea and almost hit her, which I found proved as an
effective “reminder” to the audience that these two lovers don’t live
happily ever after, but that Poppea will later meet a violent death
because of him.
Danielle de Niese also sang exquisitely. Poppea certainly isn’t a
sympathetic character and can come across as little more than a gold-
digging slut but De Niese flirted her socks off and was so charmingly
coquettish that it was impossible not to fall under her spell. The
rest of the ensemble cast were also very strong – the handsome French
countertenor Christophe Dumaux was dramatically very convincing as
poor scorned Ottone, although the glittery gold frock they put him in
really didn’t suit his complexion. Paolo Battaglia has a vibrant
bass voice and sang well as Seneca, although I expected him to look
much older. The rest of the supporting cast were good too,
particularly the two comedy drag queens who were playing the nurses –
one of whom was made to look like Baroness Thatcher
Emanuelle Haim certainly looked very glamorous, conducting the small
period-instrument orchestra from the harpsichord. They made a nice
sound in general but I don’t know the piece well enough to properly
comment on their musical interpretation. I’m not a fan of Monteverdi
at all and am still struggling to get into all this early music.
Most of the score wasn’t my cup of tea but I did really enjoy the
sublimely beautiful final duet between Poppea and Nerone. It
certainly brought the house down and there was a lot of loud cheering
at the end. Apparently it’s being filmed for cinema/DVD release.
Faye xx
Mark
Thanks for the review. You are right, the final scene is the most
beautiful part of the opera along with the Prologo and first few
scenes. Also, the point about the women singing men's roles is
interesting. I saw a production of Handel's Tamerlano recently in
which the male protagonist was sung by a counter-tenor and the male
suitor was sung by a woman in man's dress. All in all it adds nothing
but confusion to the opera.
Faye xx
>
> - Show quoted text -
It must be difficult for the women playing men and not many of them
are totally convincing - the only notable exception that I've come
across so far is Sarah Connolly in the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare
(it's on DVD). I spent the first 5 minutes thinking she was a very
good countertenor.
Another trouble with Alice Coote's male impersonation - and this may
sound a silly point to quibble about, but in the bedroom scene she was
wearing boxer shorts and her legs were so immaculately smooth and
hairless that the stage lights reflected off them and they almost
shone. Don't know what the solution is to that, short of asking women
in trouser roles to refrain from shaving their legs in the name of
art :-)
F xx
David Waters
We only made the first half of the first night of the ENO production but
will stay the course at Glyndebourne because we have booked accommodation.
BR
David
"Faye xx" <faye.c...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
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Langsuan
Fantastic seats in red foyer circle. please reply here if u know
anyone interested. i paid 165 each... will consider any reasonable
offer. show is sold out.