Sex & Violence...

..and opera? (photo: Erik Berg)

Yesterday I had a chance to watch the last ever performance of Den Norske Opera's modern production of L'incoronazione di Poppea. It's only the 2nd opera I've been fortunate enough to see live, but by far the best - although the element of shock value was perhaps taken a little too far (in my innocent and prim opinion....)

The staging was spare, with only a concave shape covering most of the stage, which reminded me a bit of the Salzburg festival production of La Traviata (with Netrebko & Villazon) - but it made a nice aesthetic effect along with the splashes of blood in the 2nd and 3rd act. This was part of the reason why the tickets and ads warned about graphic content; the other being the frequent and direct sexual references. I thought that sometimes a hint or subtle reference would be enough; at one point I thought they were past acting and that they would actually do it on the stage, which was a little unsettling. It did cause some mumbling and giggling in the audience, especially as the situation was "saved" by a comic twist.

Now for the singers, or voices I should say, which as you probably know by now interest me just as much as the staging. For once both of Poppea's suitors were played by men - Nerone was portrayed by Jacek Laszczkowski and Ottone by Tim Mead. I have to say that the latter impressed me more, but then again I may have favoured him from the beginning - I was more unsure of Jacek because I thought his voice sounded rather breathy and I couldn't make out a word of the recits. It should be said however that on the really high, powerful notes, his projection was like that of a female soprano, quite unbelievable. Tim Mead performed evenly well, and personally I think his opening monologue "E pur io torno qui" with its effortless ornamentation was sublime.

Of the rest of the cast, which was overall good, I found that Marita Sølberg as Drusilla had one of the strongest voices. Birgitte Christensen in the title role was also worth mentioning.

This was the very last performance of this production, and in that occasion it was filmed for television, hopefully to be broadcast internationally. I was relieved to not only see the possibility of reliving this great performance on TV (or DVD?), but also at the thought of opera lovers all over the world being able to see it.