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Opera Review Final

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119 views3 pages

Opera Review Final

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api-252342353
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lincornazione di Poppea - Claudio Monteverdi Norwegian National Opera

Opera Review Of:

Lincornazione di Poppea
Claudio Monteverdi
as performed by The Norwegian National Opera
Written by: Anthony Carrella November 2013

Music Historiography I Professor Dana Gorzelany-Mostak Westminster Choir College of Rider University

Anthony Carrella

Music Historiography

Professor Dana Gorzelany-Mostak

Lincornazione di Poppea - Claudio Monteverdi Norwegian National Opera

Lincornazione di Poppea premiered at the Teatoro SS Giovanni e Paolo, Venice in 1643. This opera is written in three acts (and a prologue) by early baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi. This opera review is based on a performance by The Norwegian National Opera at the Olso Opera House, and was conducted by Alessandro De Marche in 2012. Lincornazione di Poppea tells a story of fiery love, passion and infidelity in ancient Rome. This production sheds new light on an opera that is quintessential to the baroque canon of music. The Norwegian National Opera took a very contemporary approach to this traditionally lavish setting of dramaturgy, by highlighting the postmodern Regietheatre approach to opera. Regietheatre typically describes an opera that is somehow altered from its original form to enhance the viewing for a modern audience. This production of Lincornazione di Poppea is very avant-garde in nature and displays major emphasis on visual simplicity and smoothness. The set is very bare; the curved rake is in full grayscale, and the costumes are all white, grey and black. This is especially prevalent when blood is used in the death of Seneca. Nero and Lucano appear bare chested in almost homoerotic fashion while they roll in the blood of Seneca.The viewer is met with other blatant sexual themes at many points throughout the opera, and this enhances the sexuality in the libretto. This production tests the limits of what opera is, and what authorship entitles someone. Claudio Monteverdi, a composer of over eight books of madrigals would find this outlet of creativity and innovation acceptable in our time. The original idea of Lincornazione di Poppea was to display unrequited love and lust, with themes of mortality and death tied in. During the transition from the renaissance to the baroque, the original

Anthony Carrella

Music Historiography

Professor Dana Gorzelany-Mostak

Lincornazione di Poppea - Claudio Monteverdi Norwegian National Opera

production would have been just as controversial and sexual. The concept of what is publicly acceptable has changed over the past five hundred years, and the amount sheer fervor in this production gives an authentic representation of what this opera meant to audiences in 1643. On a preservation basis; no, this opera does not deliver. The historically accurate set designs and costumes are nonexistent, but what is more important is the preservation of opera itself. Music Historiography talks about the preservation of musical documents and how to interpret them. Eriend Birkeland, the set and stage designer of this production, should be applauded for interpreting the opera in a way that appeals to modern viewers, while preserving an authentic audience reaction from 1643. This production is extremely worthwhile. It has a degree of rawness and beauty that competes with the lush and lavish productions of the early twentieth century. Societys definition of beauty and artistry is changing everyday. To keep opera alive, directors and opera houses around the world need to keep audiences alive. This opera is drastically different from many, but it still yields creativity and originality. It is paramount that opera evolve alongside society, because people will not always be interested in the opera of yesteryear. While this production of L incornazione di Poppea is colorless, stark and bare, it truly speaks to the music. The audience is transformed by looking at musicality and body language of the singers and musicians, rather than lush and lavish sets. It speaks to the true colors of the music, and preserves a genuine reaction to the opera.

Anthony Carrella

Music Historiography

Professor Dana Gorzelany-Mostak

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