Claudio MONTEVERDI:
L' INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
ENSEMBLE LA VENEXIANA
Dir. CLAUDIO CAVINA
"L'Incoronazione di Poppea" must not be solely understood as a historical drama, but also as a timeless meditation on Power and Eros and the necessarily interwoven relations between these two poles of human desire. The opera is, to be precise, a description of the ambiguity and fluctuations that are integral components of human nature. No character is either without virtue or completely lame; the librettist Busenello does not condemn anyone to a stereotypical role. Characters--both the main and secondary protagonists--shift from noble to despicable behaviors, and it's this continuous flux between opposites that becomes the stylistic mark of the music and libretto. As in any true masterpiece, "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" shows us, with accurate psychological truth, the realm of blind human passions, the inconsistency of every imaginary certainty, and the uncertain course of life.
Setting the opera in post-World War II Japan has allowed for a strong visual tone that complements the contrasting and alternating passions dominating the characters on stage. As in Japan in the 1960s, there is a mixture of Asian and Western attire, Japanese settings and some modern elements, analogous to the contradictory feelings of the players. The similarities between the societies of post-war Japan and high imperial Rome are made visible, allowing for not improbable connections: An opulent court which sees the means of its authority at stake while continuing to operate through rigid liturgical and political rituals; a strong tension between distinct traditions and cultures, which, unavoidably, are destined to become homogeneous; a propensity to consider suicide as an honorable moral and political solution.
This is neither an ideological judgment of the Americanization of Japan, nor an attempt to formulate a historical-political critique. Rather, the visual settings of an era are re-created in order to feed the ironic aspects of the opera and to enrich the stage with a lively visual play of signs and symbols. Traces of a new Western mythology are suggested by the allusive superimposition of the images of classic cult Hollywood upon those of traditional Japan, absurd representations of the multiplicity and mutability of human nature.
Paola Reggiani
LA CORONAZIONE DI POPPEA
Opera in un Prologo e tre Atti
Libretto di Giovanni Francesco Busenello (1598-1659)
Musica attribuita a Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Prima rappresentazione:
Venezia, Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo - Grimani, carnevale 1643
Source: Neapolitan manuscript, 1655
Personae:
LA FORTUNA: LETIZIA CALANDRA
LA VIRTU: FRANCESCA CASSINARI
AMORE: ALENA DANTCHEVA
OTTONE, cavaliere principalissimo: JOSE' MARIA LO MONACO
DUE SOLDATI PRETORIANI: MARIO CECCHETTI/ GIOVANNI CACCAMO
POPPEA,dama nobilissima favorita di Nerone: EMANUELA GALLI
NERONE Imperatore: ROBERTA MAMELI
ARNALTA Vecchia nutrice: IAN HONEYMAN
OTTAVIA Imperatrice regrante: XENIA MEJIER
NUTRICE di Ottavia: MAKOTO SAKURADA
SENECA filosofo maestro di Nerone: MATTEO BELLOTTO
DRUSILLA dama di corte: FRANCESCA CASSINARI
VALLETTO paggio dell'Imperatrice: ALENA DANTCHEVA
MERCURIO: ANDREA FAVARI
LIBERTO capitano delle guardie: GIOVANNI CACCAMO
DAMIGELLA dell'Imperatrice: LETIZIA CALANDRA
LUCANO poeta familiare di Nerone: MARIO CECCHETTI
LITTORE : ANDREA FAVARI
VENERE: LETIZIA CALANDRA
CORO DE' FAMIGLIARI di Seneca PAOLA REGGIANI, MARIO CECCHETTI,GABRIELE LOMBARDI
DUE CONSOLI GIOVANNI CACCAMO,GABRIELE LOMBARDI
DUE TRIBUNI GIOVANNI CACCAMO,MARIO CECCHETTI, GABRIELE LOMBARDI,
CORO D'AMORI LETIZIA CALANDRA, FRANCESCA CASSINARI, ALENA DANTCHEVA
SCENOGRAFIE: T.D.S. DOMENICO
COREOGRAFIE E REGIA: PAOLA REGGIANI
LA VENEXIANA
DIRETTORE: CLAUDIO CAVINA
Svetlana FOMINA violino
Efix PULEO violino
Luca MORETTI viola
Caterina DELL'AGNELLO basso di violino
ALBERTO LO GATTO violone
Fulvio GARLASCHI tiorba/chitarra barocca
MAURIZIO MARTELLI tiorba
Gabriele PALOMBA tiorba/arciliuto
Marta GRAZIOLINO arpa
Davide POZZI cembalo I
Claudio CAVINA cembalo II
