From: velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Francois Velde)
Subject: in praise of Monteverdi (was Re: in praise of Harnoncourt
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 17:12:15 GMT

My posting on Harnoncourt prompted me to listen again to parts of 
l'Incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi's opera, as performed by Harnoncourt
and his Concentus Musicus on Teldec.  Allow me to rave about this recording,
in particular the final duet.

The story, roughly, is that of the emperor Nero who wants to divorce his
wife Octavia to marry the (ambitious and dissolute, but so bewitching) Poppea.
He eventually succeeds, after a lot of intrigue on the part of many characters.
In the final scene, in front of the whole Imperial Court, Poppea is 
crowned Empress of the World.  the final number is a love duet between Nero
and Poppea.  It is stunning, to me, to see the two lovers unabashedly 
engaging in near-foreplay, in front of the whole court. Not only is the
ending of the opera immoral (the wicked triumph over the innocent), but 
said wicked have to belabor the point with this incredible duet. The text
follows, from memory (pardon the inaccuracies and errors in translation):

Pur ti miro, pur ti godo,	I behold you, I rejoice in you,
pur ti stringo, pur t'annodo,	I embrace you, I chain you,
piu non peno, non moro,		I suffer no more, I die no more,
o mia vita, o mio tesoro.	O my life, o my treasure.
Io son tua, tuo son io,		I am yours, yours I am,
speme mia, dillo di,		O my hope, say it, say
pur ti sei l'idol mio, 		Truly you are my idol,
o mio ben, o mio caro,		O my sweet, o my dear,
o mia vita, si, si, si, si.	O my life, yes, yes, yes.

This is not a pompous love declaration: those are the murmured words of two
lovers, exaggerated, repetitive, obsessive.  Both voices, in the Harnoncourt 
recording, are sopranos (Nero was a castrato role).  As a result, they are
perfectly symmetric, as the text is between the two characters, and very
disturbingly erotic: the two voices mirror each other, dance around each
other, grope for each other, like two hands searching each other in the dark.  
They are accompanied by the orchestra, but in particular two recorders who 
insinuate themselves among the lovers and caress their intertwined voices, 
egging them on, hovering around them like little impish Cupids in some Mars 
and Venus painting by Veronese.  (Harnoncourt, in the notes, says explicitly 
that he used the recorders for the more "erotic" parts of the opera).  The 
two singers, BTW, are Helen Donath and Elisabeth Soderstrom.

(there is a version of this duet by Rene Jacobs and Helga Molinari-Muller
on a Harmonia Mundi recording: while beautiful, I think it lacks the sensuality
of Harnoncourt's orchestration).

Here's the data on the Harnoncourt recording:

Author:        Monteverdi, Claudio, 1567-1643.
Title:         L'incoronazione di Poppea / Claudio Monteverdi. Hamburg :
                 Teldec, [1985], p1974.
	4 sound discs (3 hr., 35 min.) : digital, stereo. Analog recording.
Series:        Das Alte Werk.
Publisher No.: 8.35247 ZC Teldec
Notes:         Opera in one prologue and three acts.
               Analog recording.
               Performers:  Helen Donath, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Cathy
                 Berberian, sopranos ; Paul Esswood, counter-tenor ; Kurt
                 Equiluz, Philip Langridge, tenors ; supporting soloists ;
                 Concentus Musicus Wien ; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor.

-- 

	Francois Velde

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