Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea
- Date: Sat, Sep 13, 2014
- Time: 19:00 - 22:00
- Venue: Edinburgh
- Location: Burton Theatre
Ryedale Festival Opera
Eboracum Baroque
Nina Brazier – Director
Christopher Glynn – Musical Director
Monteverdi’s greatest opera is an ‘immorality tale’ of power, lust and corruption in Imperial Rome. Nero’s wife, Ottavia, is cast aside in favour of his mistress, Poppea; the philosopher Seneca is rewarded for his temperate and judicious advice by being forced to commit suicide; Poppea’s former lover, Ottone, is blackmailed into an unsuccessful attempt to murder her. And, as the illicit couple gradually emerge with everything they wanted, Monteverdi draws us deeper and deeper into this gripping and disturbing world with some of the most complex and ravishingly beautiful music he ever wrote. The opera will be sung in a new translation by John Warrack.
‘Ryedale Festival Opera is an object lesson to our large opera companies as to how much can be achieved from so little…on the proverbial shoestring budget, Ryedale Festival each year offers an operatic production of the highest quality’ – Yorkshire Post
‘Evenings like this are too good to miss’ – Opera Magazine
Fortune: Maria Ostroukhova
Virtue: Rose Stachniewska
Love: Caroline Kennedy
Ottone: Ben Williamson (cover: James Hall)
Poppea: Elizabeth Holmes (cover: Charmian Bedford)
Nero: Stephanie Marshall (cover: Cath Backhouse)
Arnalta: Rosie Aldridge
Ottavia: Maria Ostroukhova
Nutrice: Thomas Morss
Seneca: James Fisher (cover: Timothy Murphy)
Valletto: Caroline Kennedy
Pallade: Charmian Bedford
Drusilla: Rebecca van den Berg (cover: Rose Stachniewska)
Liberto: James Hall
Damigella: Charmian Bedford
Lucano: Gwilym Bowen
Lictor: Timothy Murphy
Venus: Cath Backhouse
Seneca’s Friends 1: Cath Backhouse
Seneca’s Friend 2: Thomas Morss
Seneca’s Friend 3: Timothy Murphy
Tribunes: Gwilym Bowen, Thomas Morss
A Consul: Timothy Murphy
Chorus of Cupids: Caroline Kennedy, Rose Stachniewska, Maria Ostroukhova