POPPEA
After Claudio Monteverdi
Performed in German with English supertitles
UK Premiere
Vienna Schauspielhaus
Actors:
Melita Jurisic, Ruth Brauer, Beatrice Frey, Barbara Spitz, Kyrre Kvam, Martin Niedermair, Florian Carove
Musicians:
Barrie Kosky, Jörg Ulrich Krah, Aisha Bukayeva, Linde Gansch-Härtel
Barrie Kosky Director/ Music Director
Jörg Ulrich Krah and Barrie Kosky Music
Susanne Wolf Translation/Dramaturgy
Michael Zerz Set Design
Alfred Mayerhofer Costumes
Michael Zerz and Barrie Kosky Lighting Design
Poetic, comic and at times grotesque – this contemporary remix of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) has the spirit of the masterpiece at its heart. The love god Cupid encourages the romance between the Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea, despite his existing marriage. Sex, passion and politics ensure the path to this union is bloody and anything but even. All’s well that ends... amorously? Opera, theatre, operetta and revue blend as a compact version of the original text is sung, spoken, whispered and screamed. Cole Porter meets Monteverdi by way of burlesque.
What the critics say:
‘Opera, Musical, Revue and Trash. Barrie Kosky’s exciting “Poppea” is Group Sex of the Genres!’
- DER STANDARD
‘It is a grand tour-de-force!’
- DER TAGESSPIEGEL
‘It’s a brilliant, bitter-sweet, fizzingly animated evening of music-theatre.’
- NEUE ZURCHER ZEITUNG
