The Faber Pocket Guide to Opera (3 page)

The plot is drawn from books 13 to 23 of Homer’s
Odyssey.
The score survives in one anonymous manuscript, discovered in Vienna, and only informed guesswork ascribes it to Monteverdi.

 Plot

Faithful Penelope, Queen of Ithaca laments the twenty-year absence of Ulysses, whose return from the Trojan War has been delayed by long years of wandering on the sea and the hostility of its god, Neptune.
Penelope has had no news of him, but bravely resists the aggressive foreign suitors who bully her to admit that he is dead and that she must now remarry.
Meanwhile, Ulysses has finally returned to Ithaca, watched over by his tutelary goddess, Minerva.
She advises him to disguise himself as a beggar and only to reveal his true identity when the time is ripe.
He is secretly reunited with his
servant Eumaeus and his son Telemachus, who returns from exile in Sparta at Minerva’s behest.

Using her divine powers, Minerva prompts the unwitting Penelope to announce an archery contest with a coveted prize – whoever can string Ulysses’s bow may marry her.
The suitors all fail the test, but Ulysses, still disguised as the old beggar, succeeds.
He renounces the prize, but turns the restrung bow on the suitors and shoots them dead.
Penelope remains reluctant to believe that the beggar is Ulysses.
Only when he shows her a familiar scar on his shoulder and describes the cover of their marriage bed does she recognize him, and the opera ends with the joyful reunion of husband and wife.

 What to listen for

The chorus is no longer the central force that it was in
Orfeo
– the soloists have assumed increasing prominence, both musically and dramatically, and the opera divides more clearly into passages of speechlike recitative and songlike aria.
The role of Penelope (mezzo-soprano) is notable for the short and jagged phrases which are used to indicate her emotional upheaval; only in the beautiful final duet with Ulysses (baritone) does her music ease and expand lyrically.

 In performance

This is a long opera with several sub-plots and it is not easy to stage: the challenge is to find a way of recreating the lavish scene-changes and spectacular effects (Neptune emerging from the sea, Minerva flying through the air in a chariot, etc.) which Venetian opera houses were purpose-built to provide.
Successful modern solutions were achieved by Peter Hall’s production at Glyndebourne and Adrian Noble’s at Aix-en-Provence.

 Recording

CD: Sven Olof Eliasson (Ulisse); Nikolaus Harnoncourt (cond.).
Teldec 229 2424962

L’Incoronazione
di
Poppea
 
(
The Coronation of Poppea
)

Prologue and three acts. First performed Venice, 1643.

Libretto by Giovanni Busenello

This is believed to be the first opera to be based on a historical rather than mythological source (its plot and characters are drawn from Tacitus and Suetonius) and its tone is a remarkable mixture of emotional moods – comic and tragic, romantic and cynical, high-and low-minded.
Two versions of the score and ten of the libretto survive from Monteverdi’s time: the differences between them have fomented scholarly controversy, and there is a widespread view that the music for Ottone and the final duet between Nero and Poppea are not by Monteverdi at all.

 Plot

In a Prologue, the figures of Fortune, Virtue and Love argue as to which of them has the most power over humanity.
Love claims the victory – as the story which unfolds will justify.

Ottone returns from the wars to find that the beautiful but schemingly ambitious Poppea has left him for the tyrannical emperor Nerone (Nero).
Despite the wise counsel of the philosopher Seneca, Nerone resolves to rid himself of his wife Ottavia and make Poppea his empress.
Nero sentences Seneca to death.
Ottone plots with Drusilla, a lady of the court who is in love with him, to kill Poppea.
When their scheme is foiled, Nerone sends them into exile, along with Ottavia.
Nerone crowns Poppea empress, and they celebrate their love.

What to listen for

More lightly orchestrated than
Orfeo
or
Il
Ritorno
d’Ulisse,
this opera is close to the ideal of a ‘sung play’, in which the drama is continuous and each character sharply drawn.
Nevertheless, there are some exquisite lyrical passages, such as the lullaby with which the nurse Arnalta calms Poppea or the madrigal in which Seneca (bass) is implored by his friends not to kill himself.
Ottavia has two great solo scenes, ‘Disprezzata Regina’ and her farewell to Rome, ‘Addio, Roma’, which demonstrate Monteverdi’s power of expressing the gamut of tragic emotions.
In casting this opera, it is important to select voices which balance and contrast in colour: to achieve this, the role of Nerone may be sung by either a counter-tenor or a mezzo-soprano.

In performance

Today’s directors tend to interpret
Poppea
as a cynical sex comedy, and several productions have presented the opera in an ambience reminiscent of Fellini’s
La
Dolce
Vita
or
Satyricon,
playing up the sleazy erotic decadence of Nero’s court: a good example of this is David Alden’s version, seen both at WNO and in Munich.
The more sensitive approach taken by directors like Luc Bondy (in Brussels) and Klaus-Michael Gruber (in Vienna and Aix-en-Provence) suggests a moral maze of motive and emotion, questioning our assumption that love is always a force for good in the world.
Either way,
Poppea
remains an extraordinarily modern and adult opera that hits audiences hard.

Recording

CD: Elisabeth Söderström (Nerone); Nikolaus Harnoncourt (cond.).
Teldec 835247

Francesco Cavalli

(1602–76)

La
Calisto

Prologue and three acts. First performed Venice, 1651.

Libretto by Giovanni Faustini

One of eleven operas that the hugely prolific Cavalli wrote in collaboration with Faustini, this is a typical product of the Venetian baroque style, alternating pathos and romance with saucy comedy and containing several opportunities for magical stage effects and changes of scene.