Grange Festival Stages Modern-Dress L’Incoronazione di Poppea

Modern-Dress Production Updates Monteverdi at the Grange Festival

A surfeit of sex, skulduggery, and self-interest defines Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, widely recognized as one of the most deliciously amoral operas in the repertoire. Emperor Nero’s political and personal machinations to replace his obdurate wife, Octavia, with the coolly calculating Poppea drive an entertaining plot, echoing the timeless theme of politicians behaving badly.

Director Walter Sutcliffe incorporates several witty scenic updates to bridge the seventeenth-century score with the present day. Among the production’s most humorous touches are scenes depicting Nero and Poppea utilizing contemporary technology. Later in the performance, Nero and Lucan drug themselves up to the eyeballs, navigating a delicate line between toxic masculinity and awkward homoeroticism.

Staging Missteps and Musical Triumphs Under David Bates

Despite inventive directorial choices, the production encounters several staging hurdles. Jon Bausor’s drab temple set features wobbly columns flanked by ugly staircases from which singers occasionally struggle to be heard, while the costumes feel hastily made rather than conveying Italian haute couture. Additionally, badly synchronised surtitles splashed across the scenery during the prologue prove distracting. Other directorial decisions alter traditional stagings: Poppea’s ancient nurse—commonly portrayed by a man in drag—is played here by Frances Gregory as a bespectacled personal assistant, a choice that sacrifices some of the comedy and the libretto’s acerbic wisdom on old age. Furthermore, Seneca’s friends sing invisibly from the wings, robbing the evening of a sumptuous musical episode, and the choral pomp and circumstance celebrating the crowning of Poppea is cut entirely.

Musically, however, the production draws high praise. Conductor David Bates leads La Nuova Musica in a surging account of Monteverdi’s glittering score. The instrumentation features a mighty twanging of strings in the pit, provided by three theorbos, guitars, a lirone, and two triple harps.

Standout Performances From Kitty Whately, Sam Furness, and the Ensemble

Vocal performances anchor the festival run. Successfully extending her plush alto into soprano territory, Kitty Whately sings a radiant Poppea who appears more easygoing and less purely manipulative than traditional interpretations. Sam Furness portrays Nero with a ringing tenor and well-crafted acting, though he occasionally tires at the top of his range and lacks some of the character’s psychotic edge.

The supporting cast delivers exceptional work across the board. Anna Bonitatibus performs as a magnificently sung, pure tigress of an Octavia, while countertenor Christopher Lowrey sings with prodigious strength and tone as Poppea’s jilted lover, Otho. Jonathan Lemalu commands the stage as Seneca, equipped with an unwavering moral compass. In smaller roles, Jorge Navarro Colorado and Gwilym Bowen execute dazzling coloratura as Nero’s dozy bodyguards, Vanessa Waldhart offers a vivacious Drusilla, and Fiona Kimm steals scenes as Octavia’s uproariously unprincipled antediluvian nurse.