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| Danielle De Niese |
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| Philippe Jaroussky |
So, Nerone does end up with Poppea after all, in the final scene of L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Their beautiful love duet is an ironic ending to a cynical opera.
Happy ending
(for those who are still alive.)
These two vocal lines blend, contrast, intertwine, and sometimes merge into unison in an ethereal way. Monteverdi was not pulling any punches when he wrote this erotically charged duet to close his opera. Ms. De Niese and Mr. Jaroussky do this music full justice in a performance that just may be the best ever recorded.
Thank you for this! There is also a nice version of this with Philippe and Nuria Rial.
ReplyDeleteHi Juha! You're very welcome. Thanks for the recommendation. I will have to check that one out, too.
ReplyDeleteThis is really lovely - I am embarrassed to admit I've never watched this DVD! I should.
ReplyDelete@Earworm: I have not actually watched the whole thing -- just the bits available at Y-T. Based on what I've seen and heard, it's simply a must! And no forests creeping in.
ReplyDeleteIs there more than one version of Poppea with de Niese on DVD? I know there's one DVD with her in that role, which I haven't seen, and I didn't stop to think whether this might be a different one! I'd better go check.
DeleteAnd thank god no forests. I love Claus Guth's mozart productions (most of them, anyway), but it's made pine trees begin to look slightly sinister to me. (And I'm from the Pacific Northwest, so this is kind of a problem when I go home to visit :)
Yes, she is in Robert Carsen's (speaking of) version for Glyndebourne with Alice Coote as Nerone.
Delete(Take care if you happen to read the Amazon reviews. They have reviews for both versions with De Niese under both DVD listings. It's very confusing.)
Actually, I don't know from which production that other version comes from; I heard it on a compilation CD of various opera arias. After the other stuff on the CD the intro with lots of lutes sounded more like sixties folk song than opera...
ReplyDelete@Juha,
ReplyDeleteI've seen two live clips on YouTube, both of which have some extra percussion for the dance-like ritornellos. The instrumental ensemble is called L'arpeggiato
Someone uploaded this album track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm641MrwPN0
from Monteverdi: Teatro d'Amore
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KYJA6K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001KYJA6K&linkCode=as2&tag=reornore-20
There's a really snappy Zephiro torno on this collection, too.
However, I'm not sure this gang has done full performance of Poppea.