Opera Review: Where Passion Rules, Morality Stands Little Chance

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

L’Incoronazione di Poppea In a new Robert Wilson production of this Monteverdi opera, singers recreate the tale of a mistress who wants to be empress. After a run in Paris, the work will continue in Milan early next year.

FRANCE---Nero and Poppea never touch in Robert Wilson’s new production of Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” for the Paris Opera, which ends its run at the Palais Garnier on Monday. Their love affair, which drives anyone who gets in its way to death or exile, is one of the most violent portrayed in opera. The tension between the frosty beauty of Mr. Wilson’s production and the simmering passions of its characters is disconcerting at first. What Mr. Wilson offers is a geometry lesson in human passions. In Monteverdi’s opera, the historical events are introduced as a test of strength between Amor, Virtue and Fortune, which Amor is determined to win. The libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello reflects the very Venetian bent for intellectual contrarianism on the margins of the religious conformity of his time in the 17th century. [link]