Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray offers decent video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
ORCHESTRA: Baroque Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu
CONDUCTOR: Harry Bicket
ARTISTS: Miah Persson, Sarah Connolly, Jordi Domenech, Franz Josef Selig
For more about Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea and the Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray release, see the Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on November 24, 2012 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
2012 has turned out to be quite the year for L'Incoronazione di Poppea, a troubling piece of operatic grandiosity by Claudio Monteverdi,
still strangely one of the unsung early heroes of the form which would come to define the Italian musical soul for centuries after this piece
premiered in the 1640s. Monteverdi:
Coronation of Poppea was a really interesting release, at least from an intellectual standpoint, which offered some striking visuals
dressing up a somewhat problematic conceit that made this mythic piece supposedly more contemporary and, one supposes, more accessible
to modern day audiences. This 2009 Liceu Opera Barcelona production (which was originally staged in Cardiff in the late nineties) casts the
ancient piece once again in a seemingly more contemporary milieu, but this time, director David Alden seems to capture more of the timeless
element that was perhaps slightly lacking in the previously released Norwegian Blu-ray.
The production is fairly minimal but is anchored by commanding performances by Miah Persson as Poppea and Sarah Connolly as Nero. There
are some unusual and frankly kind of funny conceits, including a Fortuna (Marisa Martins) who looks like she's wandered in from a nearby bus
and truck touring company of The Coneheads. Harry Bicket conducts with appealing reserve, but with just the right amount of passion
to highlight this opera which is all about the ferocity of obsessive love.
L'Incoronazione Di Poppea is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Opus Arte with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is one of
the more curiously soft looking high definition presentations from Opus Arte, with a sort of fuzzy looking image in midrange and especially wide
shots. Close-ups pop a good deal better, at least relatively, but this is not a presentation that really offers stupendously popping visuals. Part
of this may be due to the weird purple stage lighting that kind of bathes everything in a milky ambience and robs the image of significant fine
detail.
L'Incoronazione Di Poppea features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix as well as an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of
these tracks sound magnificent, ably supporting Persson's lovely lyricism and Connolly's more brusquely athletic approach. The continuo here is
especially well reproduced, with a beautiful crispness but also with a charming fluidity. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range is considerable, at
least given the rather restrained dynamic language of early Italian opera.
Both Poppeas currently out on Blu-ray have their own pleasures, but this one is probably the better bet of the two, for the dynamic
combo of Miah Persson and Sarah Connolly if for no other reason. Minimally staged, but dramatically sung and suffused with some nicely done
comedic bits, this manages to evoke both its ancient subject, its proper historical context, as well as a bracing modern edge.
Recommended.
Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray, News and Updates
No related news posts for Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray yet.
Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione Di Poppea Blu-ray Screenshots
