Monteverdi Monday – Nerone in Love (Another Clip for the Otterphile)

Anne Sofie von Otter in pants again; this time as Nerone. She/he is so seduced...and we can see why. Mirelle Delunsch is a pretty irresistible Poppea! This performance was recorded in 2000. I haven't found a  recording of the whole performance yet, but there are more excerpts on the Toob. Look for them!!

Haïm Hair*

I am not talking about Haim, the Band, although they have hair, too. I am talking about Haïm, the conductor (conductress? conductrix?) and Baroque music guru. 

Emmanuelle Haïm is a talented and expressive musician, and a strong leader. A whole bunch of top-notch, not-necessarily-baroque-specialist singers have stepped on stage or into the recording studio with her, including Rolando Villazón, Joyce DiDonato, Topi Lehtipuu, Susan Graham, Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Ann Hallenberg, Véronique Gens, etc., etc.), plus the usual Baroque suspects.

Monteverdi Monday – Richard Croft & Patricia Schumann

Richard Croft and Patricia Schumann as Nerone and Poppea sing Pur ti miro. It’s not an "authentic" performance, although the edition was prepared by René Jacobs. But when Richard Croft is singing, who cares? This is from 1993; he had (and still has) such a bright clear, unaffected voice.  And the staging is kind of erotic, in a non-explicit way. Happy Monteverdi Monday!

L'Incoronazione di Poppea: Pur ti miro

Monteverdi Monday – Philippe Jaroussky and Nuria Rial: Pur ti miro

I "discovered" the performance of Monteverdi's Zefiro torna by Nuria Rial, Philippe Jaroussky, and L’Arpeggiata after one of my readers (Juha) mentioned that they had recorded Pur ti miro from Poppea.  There are actually are three different performances of Pur ti miro by L’Arpeggiata on YouTube: 

Monteverdi Monday – Danielle De Niese and Philippe Jaroussky



Danielle De Niese

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. 

This is the Pizzi production again.  

Monteverdi Monday – Philippe Jaroussky and Mathias Vidal

In this scene from Pier Luigi Pizzi's production of  L' incoronazione di Poppea, Emperor Nerone (Countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, right) and his friend Lucano (Tenor Mathias Vidal, left) are singing about how beautiful Nerone's girlfriend Poppea is and how much Nerone loves her.  

Or are they?

This clip might make some folks uncomfortable and others may find it hot.  (Some may feel both ways about it.)