Product Details

• Actors: Danielle de Niese, Alice Coote, Andrew Tortise, Lucia Cirillo, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
• Directors: Robert Carsen, Emmanuelle Haïm
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Decca
• DVD Release Date: July 14, 2009
• Run Time: 193 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0027CAR1Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,800 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The Independent, London

"Wonderfully lucid and unflinching staging...the wonder of conductor Emmanuelle Haïm's work here with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is the way she illuminates the play of Monteverdi's expressive vocal lines with the harmony beneath"

Product Description

The major debut on Decca DVD of Danielle de Niese. Returning to the opera house where she sang her sensational Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Danielle performs the title role in Monteverdi's great opera of lust and power, in Robert Carsen's new, modern-dress staging. De Niese is perfectly cast as the beautiful and seductive Poppea who ruthlessly grabs power as Nero's lover but, in this production, is doomed from the moment of her coronation. De Niese's performance is vocally and dramatically powerful, perfectly complemented by Alice Coote as Nero. The two are supported by an outstanding cast, together with period-performance stars Emmanuelle Haïm conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Carsen creates an intelligent and visually-strong production, focusing on the personal side of the story. At times the action is violent and shocking, but this is juxtaposed with episodes of lightness and humour. Filmed in High Definition Widescreen

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars stunning Coronation, September 24, 2009

By 

David J. Ross - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (DVD)

I've been a fan of this opera for more than 40 years and even put together a performance of the Prologue while a graduate student. I've seen a number of live performances, and own many CDs and DVDs of performances dating back to the 1960s.

This version is stunning in terms of the singing and the production. First, they got all the voice parts as Monteverdi had intended: Nero is a mezzo, Ottone is a countertenor, and the two nurses are travesty roles (here, sung and acted by men). Emmanuelle Haïm is a gem as music director. I've been a fan of hers since her recording of the Handel "Delirio" Cantata with Natalie Dessay.

The performance of the singers and the orchestra is of the highest quality, the scholarship is first-rate, and both the staging and music direction are imaginative and fun! Here's an opera where evil triumphs over good, and the audience leaves smiling. Highly recommended.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monteverdi's final opera in a cinematic presentation, July 24, 2009

By 

Mike Birman (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (DVD)

Claudio Monteverdi was in the final year of his life when this brilliant amoral operatic masterpiece was first presented in the city of intrigue, Venice. With what may have been intended as ironic commentary on the state of Europe's ruling aristocracy in 1643, Monteverdi concentrates his genius on the opera's two most loathsome creations - Poppea and Nerone - as the severely flawed central characters. Although we are initially presented with a contest between the mythological characters Virtue, Fortune and Love, this is merely the opera's 'MacGuffin': Hitchcock's phrase for a malleable plot device that facilitates the telling of a story. L'incoronazione di Poppea, despite its surface obeisance to the world of myth, is an opera with a human heartbeat. The corrupt humans who infest this Baroque equivalent of a Hollywood action film are essentially evil, selfish and disturbingly goal-oriented. But what rings most modern in this production is that we identify completely with its odious central characters. We applaud their most depraved actions and revel in their final success. It is like the WWF with recitatives.

Glyndebourne's modern dress production stars the beautiful and seductive Danielle de Niese as the beautiful and seductive Poppea. Following her stunning debut in Glyndebourne's production of Handel's Julius Caesar, those of us who predicted stardom for the young singer were hardly crawling out on a limb. It has come to pass, of course, and the very qualities that have raised her high in the operatic firmament are all present on this two DVD set. Her melliform voice is lyrical and resonant, with a marvelous ability to convey emotion without attracting attention to her underlaying technique. Her engrossing stage presence acts as an adjunct to her singing, conveying a three dimensional characterization in her role that heightens the opera's ironic drama. As her actions become increasingly cynical and as her life is threatened by those who plot against her, we as a modern audience used to indeterminate morality identify with her plight and applaud her ultimate success. Whether a Baroque audience responded in the same way is an open question.

Alice Coote singing Nerone is suitably unpleasant. We don't identify with her but we admire her ability to remain so untroubled by evil. Athough the interaction between Nerone and Poppea didn't strike me as particularly erotically charged, they make excellent plotters and the drama is well served. Coote's singing is good though she occasionally struck me as a little bland. The rest of the cast is good. Especially strong is Dominique Visse as Nutrice. Emmanuelle Haim is a superb Baroque conductor and she does an especially good job conducting the splendid Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, still my favorite name for a band.

The modern production and set design is rather spare. The first act is confined to crimson colored bedchambers and the rest of the opera occurs mostly on a bare stage with few props. It is Monteverdi's brilliant music that carries the day and here it is well sung and acted. The moral ambiguity of this opera makes it relevant, the composer's artistry makes it enjoyable. With Danielle de Niese's undeniable star power as an added incentive this production of Monteverdi's somewhat problematic opera (much of the last scene was probably completed by Francisco Cavilli) is worth adding to your Baroque opera collection. The sound both in stereo PCM and DTS 5.1 is superb as is the high definition video. The opera is spread across two DVDs and it should have fit on one but this practice is now fairly common as recording companies attempt to recoup (or maximize) their investment (or profits).

Mike Birman

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Modern" Masterpiece, November 12, 2009

By 

Dr. John W. Rippon "May 19, 1932 and still going" (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (DVD)

I was fully prepared not to like this recording of Poppea. For years I have enjoyed this masterwork in the radiant production of Nikolaus Harnoncourt done with Jean-Pierre Ponelle. I feared that this "modern" production would be an empty and horrendous mess as the director-driven "eurotrash" productions of most Handel operas and all Rameau works so far done as "modern". What a great surprise is this Glyndebourne gem directed by Robert Carsen and conducted by Emmanuelle Haim! First the voicing is as written by Monteverdi with a Mezzo for the Nero to compliment the Soprano of Poppea. The brilliance of the final "pur ti Miro" duet attests to that validity. I admit understanding Alice Coote's Nero took several listenings before I appreciated her artistry here. Rather than a gruff, supermacho tyrant, this portrayal is of a petulant wily weasel, a totally corrupt being that picts his teeth with his fingers after having snacked on Ottavia's chicken and in one of the most scarrilous scenes ever seen on stage, has Lucano drowned after a homoerotic encounter while the two of them sing of Poppea's love.
This is the last will and testament of a consummate composer and artist that had for decades provided lofty masterpieces as the 1610 Vespers and numerous choral and operatic works all attesting to man's highest values and morals. Yet this work is arguably even greater as it reflects the human race as it is rather than what it might be. Perhaps Poppea realizes this as she, in the end, wraps herself in the royal robes(or shroud) and fear is on her face.