In the Beginning: Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea - Page 2

In his 1989 edition of Poppea, critic Alan Curtis suggests that the orchestral accompaniment to Monteverdi’s late operas consisted mainly of continuo accompaniment from plucked instruments such as the lute and harp, citing a lack of evidence for other instruments accompanying the voices.

Strictly speaking, Poppea exemplifies the genre dramma per musica, opera’s precursor. As musicologist Roger Savage notes, it possesses qualities of a “sung-play” and contains “brisk action, mercurial moods, complex plots, flexible monodies, functional airs, telling ritornelli, and strong forward movement.” To early performers, acting and singing were equally important. Indeed, Poppea was a close cousin to other forms of spoken drama to which modern opera remains indebted, such as commedia dell’arte and ancient Greek tragedy.

Poppea set a number of striking precedents that were later adopted by Venetian composers. Its prologue closely resembles literary prologues contained in works of Renaissance drama. In the opera’s opening scene, the allegorical figures of Fortune, Virtue, and Love argue about who has the greater power over the fate of men. In this prologue, as in straight theater at the time, the composer foreshadowed the meaning of opera. Love wins out, of course, as Nerone ultimately divorces his wife and hands Ottavia’s crown to Poppea.

In a significant departure from the mythological preoccupations of earlier Florentine opera, Monteverdi’s librettos reflect a refreshingly modern treatment of character based on history, whose conflicts would have seemed familiar to actual Venetians in the audience. Venetian audiences were also familiar with the historical account of Nerone and Poppea. Busenello’s humanistic treatment of his characters was guided by a desire to portray real human emotion and conflict rather than recreate stories from myth and legend.

The libretto recounts the events of a single day in 65 A.D., beginning with Poppea’s pledge of love to Nerone, who is unhappily married to Ottavia. Ottone, who is betrothed to Poppea, discovers that she has been sharing Nerone’s bed. After Cupid foils Ottavia’s plot to have Ottone murder Poppea, Ottavia is put aside and Poppea takes her place as Nerone’s queen. Glover sees similarities between Roman opera’s fast-moving plots and Busenello’s structuring of the libretto. Poppea’s three-act structure represents a Venetian adaptation of court and Roman operas, which were divided into five acts.

Article Author: Cynthia Greenwood

Cynthia Greenwood writes about books and the performing arts. She is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Shakespeare's Plays (to be released in April 2008 by Penguin/Alpha Books). She has written for The New York Times, Playbill, Andante, San …

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