L'incoronazione di Poppea
also The Coronation of Poppea, Die Krönung der Poppea, Le couronnement de Poppée, L'incoronatione di Poppea
opera
Composer Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Sacrati
Librettist Giovanni Francesco Busenello
Synopsis
Poppaea, mistress of the emperor Nero, means to be empress. Her former lover Otho is pushed aside, and the empress Octavia stands in her way; Seneca, Nero's old tutor, counsels a restraint that no one wants to hear. Virtue and Reason open the opera arguing over who really governs human affairs.
Versions
Key facts
- Premiere
- carnival season 1642–43, usually given as 1643, Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice
- Acts
- 3
- Language
- Italian (it)
- Setting
- Rome, in the reign of Nero.
What's different
The Venetian carnival ran from late December into Lent, so the season straddles two calendar years and no single premiere date is known. Nothing survives from the first run but the libretto and the scenario. Anna Renzi's Ottavia is the only casting the sources record, and the rest of the cast is unrecorded. The music comes from two manuscripts, Venice and Naples, both later; they differ in numbers, keys and orchestration, and modern performances rest on editorial choices among them. Contemporary sources also label the work differently, and none is treated here as the definitive original designation.
Dramatis personae
| Role | Voice | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Poppea Nerone's mistress. | soprano | — |
| Nerone Emperor of Rome. | castrato (historical) | — |
| Ottavia Empress, Nerone's wife. | mezzo-soprano | Anna Renzi |
| Ottone Poppea's former lover. | castrato (historical) | — |
| Seneca Philosopher and Nerone's tutor. | bass | — |
| Drusilla A lady of the court, in love with Ottone. | soprano | — |
| Arnalta Poppea's old nurse. | tenor (buffo) | — |
| Nutrice Ottavia's nurse. | tenor (buffo) | — |
| Fortuna Fortune, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
| Virtù Virtue, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
| Amore Love, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
Key facts
- Premiere
- 1651, Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples
- Acts
- 3
- Language
- Italian (it)
- Setting
- Rome, in the reign of Nero.
What's different
A revival by a travelling company, and the reason the Naples manuscript exists. It differs from the Venice score in ways that are not all obviously corruptions, so calling one a performing edition of the other is already an editorial claim. The cast is unrecorded, and how the two manuscripts divide the roles between them has not been fully worked out.
Dramatis personae
| Role | Voice | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Poppea Nerone's mistress. | soprano | — |
| Nerone Emperor of Rome. | castrato (historical) | — |
| Ottavia Empress, Nerone's wife. | mezzo-soprano | — |
| Ottone Poppea's former lover. | castrato (historical) | — |
| Seneca Philosopher and Nerone's tutor. | bass | — |
| Drusilla A lady of the court, in love with Ottone. | soprano | — |
| Arnalta Poppea's old nurse. | tenor (buffo) | — |
| Nutrice Ottavia's nurse. | tenor (buffo) | — |
| Fortuna Fortune, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
| Virtù Virtue, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
| Amore Love, in the prologue. | soprano | — |
Source
- Annales by Tacitus (117)
- De vita Caesarum by Suetonius (121)
- Octavia by anon. — the anonymous Roman tragedy, source of Ottavia's lament and exile
Written from
- Rosand, E. (1992) 'L'incoronazione di Poppea', in Sadie, S. (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London: Macmillan Reference, vol. 2, pp. 729-796. Identifies Anna Renzi as Ottavia, the only certain 1643 creator. Also tentatively links Anna di Valerio, the castrato Stefano Costa and another castrato billed Rabacchio to Poppea, Nerone and the Page, from the cast of La finta savia, which shared the same stage and season; not evidence about this cast directly, and not used here.