L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA

Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)
Opera in a prologue and three acts in Italian
Libretto: G. F. Busenello
Premièr at Teatro di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice – 1642
13, 19, 22, 27†, 30 January 1967  
Teatro alla Scala, Milano

Conductor: Bruno Maderna
Chorus master: Roberto Benaglio
Stage director: Margherita Wallmann
Scene and costumes: Attilio Colonnello

Fortuna Goddess of Fortune LAURA RONDI mezzosoprano
Virtu Goddess of Virtue EMMA RENZI soprano
Amore Goddess of Love EDITH MARTELLI soprano
Ottone Poppea’s former lover ALBERO RINALDI baritone
A soldier of the Emperor’s Bodyguard PIERRO DI PALMA tenor
A soldier of the Emperor’s Bodyguard MARIO CARLIN tenor
Poppea GRACE BUMBRY mezzosoprano
Nerone Emperor of Rome RENATO GAVARINI/GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO (27, 30) tenor
Arnalta Poppea’s old nurse GLORIA LANE soprano
Ottavia Empress of Rome LEYLA GENCER soprano [Role debut]
Nutrice Ottavia’s nurse MARIA MADDALENA mezzosoprano
Durusilla Ottavia’s lady-in waiting ANNA NOVELLI soprano
Seneca philosopher, Nerone’s former tutor CARLO CAVA bass baritone
Damigella Octavia’s maid MADDALENA BONIFACCIO soprano
Liberto Captain of the Guard LORENZO TESTI baritone
Pallade Goddess of Wisdom MIRELLA FIORENTINI soprano
Lucano Nero’s Friend WALTER BRIGHI tenor
Littore MIRELLA GIACOMOTTI bass
Mercurio REGOLO ROMANI tenor
Valetto MARIA CASULA mezzosoprano
Petroni ANGELO MERCURIALI tenor
Tigellino: LEONARDO MONREALE bass/JEDA VALTRIANI soprano/PIO BONFANTI, tenor

Time: About 55 AD
Place: Rome

† Recording date

Photos © ERIO PICCAGLIANI, Milano 

Sketches © ATTILIO COLONELLO




Act I
Act II














AVANTI                                                
1967.01.12                                                                                            

CORRIERE DELLA SERA                                               
1967.01.14                                                                                        

IL PICCOLO                                    
1967.01.14  

L'UNITA                                             
1967.01.14  

THE KANSAS CITY TIMES                                           
1967.01.16 

THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER                                        
1967.03.05

OPERA MAGAZINE                                          
1967 April

OPERA FRESH                                            
2014.07.07  
 
Leyla Gencer And Grace Bumbry In Unconventional Performance

Grace Bumbry (left) and Leyla Gencer (right) appear backstage
during performances of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea at
La Scala in 1967. 
"L'incoronazione di Poppea (SV 308, The Coronation of Poppaea) is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1643 carnival season. One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times. The original manuscript of the score does not exist; two surviving copies from the 1650s show significant differences from each other, and each differs to some extent from the libretto. How much of the music is actually Monteverdi's, and how much the product of others, is a matter of dispute. None of the existing versions of the libretto, printed or manuscript, can be definitively tied to the first performance at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the precise date of which is unknown. Details of the original cast are few and largely speculative, and there is no record of the opera's initial public reception. Despite these uncertainties, the work is generally accepted as part of the Monteverdi operatic canon, his last and perhaps his greatest work. In a departure from traditional literary morality, it is the adulterous liaison of Poppea and Nerone which triumphs, although this victory is demonstrated by history to have been transitory and hollow. Moreover, in Busenello's version of the story all the major characters are morally compromised. Written when the genre of opera was only a few decades old, the music for L'incoronazione di Poppea has been praised for its originality, its melody, and for its reflection of the human attributes of its characters. The work helped to redefine the boundaries of theatrical music, and established Monteverdi as the leading musical dramatist of his time

http://operafresh.blogspot.com/2014/06/leyla-gencer-and-grace-bumbry-in.html 
                                                         
HIGHLIGHTS                     
1967.01.27
                                               
Recording Excerpts [1967.01.27]
Addio Roma, addio patria Act II Scene VI
Tu che dagli avi miei Act II Scene IX

FROM CD BOOKLET

L'INCORANAZIONE DI POPPEA

The present version of "L'incoronazione di Poppea" dates from 1937 and was prepared by Giacomo Benvenuti. Benvenuti was born on March 16, 1885, in Brescia and died on January 20, 1943, in Barbarano di Salò. He studied composition at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna, soon being closely associated with the circle around Ottorino Respighi and Riccardo Bacchelli. In 1908 the conductor Willem Mengelberg came across some of his piano compositions and was sufficiently impressed to recommend them to the pianist Eugen d'Albert who, in turn, recommended Benvenuti to the Music Publishers Schott as a staff member. In 1912 Benvenuti won a competition with performed more than sixty times that year, throughout Europe. Benvenuti also wrote an opera: "Don Juan José" which has, however, neither been published or indeed performed.
Eventually he concentrated wholly on the reconstruction of performing versions of old Italian music, preparing the first editions of symphonies and sonatas by Sammartini, the toccatas by Frescobaldi as well as compositions by Cavazzoni. In 1934 he arranged Monteverdi's "Orfeo" for performance. Benvenuti's version of "L'incoronazione di Poppea" was first performed in Florence on June 6, 1937, conducted by Gino Marinuzzi. Monteverdi performances are extremely rare at La Scala. In fact, apart from a performance of "Orfeo" in 1935 conducted by Gino Marinuzzi with Carlo Galeffi as Orfeo, up until 1967 there had only been one performance of "Poppea"; in 1953. The conductor was Carlo Maria Giulini and the cast headed by Clara Petrella as Poppea, Renato Gavarini as Nero and Maria Radev as Ottavia. On January 13, 1967, La Scala decided to mount the opera again in honour of the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi's birth. Giuseppe Di Stefano fell ill before the premiere and Renato Gavarini was a last- minute substitute. We have therefore decided to issue the recording made during the dress rehearsal. However, there was a mishap here too. During the performance Leyla Gencer stumbled and injured herself severely enough to require hospital treatment. Her cover took over for the remainder of the performance.
The press was generally luke-warm about the performance. OPERA wrote that it "is sad that one of the loveliest operas in the repertory cannot find a way to win the hearts (or even the ears) of the Scala patrons."
While "authentic" style adherents will consider the present performance as dating from something like the Stone Age of musicological research, and no-one nowadays would seriously consider Grace Bumbry, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Leyla Gencer suitable exponents of early Italian Baroque style, it's fun to think that they ever were. Yet some of the sheer lustiness of their approach might not come amiss in the - so often vocally effete - performances so much in favour at present. Should this performance require additional defence, it might be apposite to recall Raymond Leppard's statement: "There will and should be endless interpretation of the details of reconstruction. No one version will be wholly right or wholly wrong. Like Shakespeare, Monteverdi's quality will shine through the worst and the best we can do for him."
Bruno Maderna was born in 1920 in Venice. He studied composition with Gian Francesco Malipiero and conducting with Herman Scherchen. He eventually became the senior member of the new, post- war generation of Italian serialist composers, whose other exponents included Luciano Berio and Luigi Nono. His compositional procedures were based on careful mathematical calculations of the series for each composition. From the basic material, by the manipulation of dynamics and of the pitch of the various notes of the series, he derived surprisingly lyrical music. His compositions include "Compositions in three tempi", "Music in two dimensions", for flute and taped sound and a number of compositions for electronic music such as "Dimensions II". Together with Luciano Berio, Maderna was the first Italian musician to take up active research into electronic music. His 'theatre piece' "Satyricon" was first staged at the Holland Festival just a few months before his death in 1973 at the age of 53.
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