When the company performed Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea for the first time, with Janet Baker in the title role, Collins was the witty Arnalta.
The best of the performances included Brittany Fowler's dynamically fluid characterization of La Musica in the Prologue from "L'Orfeo," and the parting duet from Act I of "L'Incoronazione di Poppea," with Ms. Fowler in the soprano role of Nero and Christine Bancroft, a soprano with a dark, mezzolike tint, as Poppea.
By Alex Ross Susan Graham and Jeremy Ovenden in "The Coronation of Poppea," in Florence.
In 1642 Gian Francesco Busenello based his L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, music by Monteverdi) on incidents in the life of Nero, and, from that point on, historical subjects became increasingly popular.
At its core, The Coronation of Poppea is a very modern opera; Ravenhill didn't have to change much.
It will give five performances of "Poppea" in a rarely done English version with period instruments.
It came in 2000, when I sang Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina at the Edinburgh festival, and then a couple of weeks later, Poppea in The Coronation of Poppea at ENO.
In Florence, Maggio Musicale, Italy's leading music festival, presented "The Coronation of Poppea," Monteverdi's eternally modern drama of erotic scheming at the court of Nero.
Next month the renowned playwright Mark Ravenhill will make his opera debut in the 107-seat theatre, directing his updated, jazz-inflected version of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea.
