Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films
The Florentine Opera’s production of Claudio Monteverdi’s early opera, The Coronation of Poppea, is not one in which you go home “singing the sets.” The company opts for a somewhat pallid palette for its set design, which did not detract a bit from this intimate opera; rather, it allows the audience to focus its attention on the characters—characters brought to vivid life by a truly splendid cast.
As three goddesses debate which is of greater importance to the humans with which they freely play—Virtue (Katherine Pracht), Fortune (Nicole Heinen) and Love (Melissa Harvey)—the latter gradually comes out on top. Indeed, affairs of the heart—particularly those of love, lust and jealousy—are central to Monteverdi’s nearly 400-year-old opera. This is opera (as an art form) in its infancy from the man who, it can be said, invented it. We can see that, from the very beginning, opera took all of the best and worst of humanity and reflected it back upon us.
With an amazing central cast and fine group of supporting actor-vocalists, this Florentine production pushes all our emotional buttons. First is the title character, the conniving-yet-quite-enamored Poppea, here superbly sung and acted by mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider. Fully her equal is Emperor Nerone, here finely embodied by tenor Karim Sulayman, who manages to come off as a romantic hero and a frightening menace all at once; no mean feat. Their love scenes are thoroughly believable—at times even soaked in Eros. Another attention-getter is bass Matthew Treviño, who cuts an imposing figure as the doomed Seneca. Likewise, Pracht as the similarly doomed woman scorned, Empress Ottavia, brilliantly evokes all her requisite painful wrath.
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Monteverdi’s lovely, impassioned score was trimmed down a bit to fit into the relatively small slice of space before the stage. Period instruments played by the Florentine Opera Baroque Ensemble—expertly led at the harpsichord by Jory Vinikour—lend Poppea yet further historical gravitas.
Through March 31 in Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall, 123 E. State St. For tickets, visit florentineopera.org/Poppea.
