We left at the interval...

Opéra de Lille, Sunday March 18 2012 Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm. Production: Jean-François Sivadier. Sets: Alexandre de Dardel. Lighting: Philippe Berthomé. Costumes: Virginie Gervaise. Poppea: Sonya Yoncheva. Nerone: Max Emmanuel Cencic. Ottavia: Ann Hallenberg. Ottone: Tim Mead. Seneca: Paul Whelan. Drusilla: Amel Brahim-Djelloul. Nutrice/Famigliare di Seneca: Rachid Ben Abdeslam. Arnalta: Emiliano Gonzalez Toro. Fortuna/Venere/Pallade: Anna Wall. Valetto/Virtù: Khatouna Gadelia. Mercurio/Console: Aimery Lefèvre. Damigella/Amore: Camille Poul. Littore/Famigliare di Seneca /Console: Patrick Schramm. Lucano/soldato/tribuno/Famigliare di Seneca: Mathias Vidal. Liberto Capitano/soldato/tribuno: Nicholas Mulroy. Actor: Rachid Zanouda. Le Concert d’Astrée. I was too late booking for Poppea in Lille, so we found ourselves on folding wooden seats (creaking ones, too, when occupied by fidgets) on the second row of the topmost tier, just below the rim of the dome and well to one side. A...

La Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday March 12 2006 Conductor: René Jacobs. Production: David McVicar. Poppea/Fortuna: Carmen Giannattasio. Nerone: Malena Ernman. Ottavia/Virtù: Marie-Claude Chappuis. Ottone: Lawrence Zazzo. Seneca: Antonio Abete. Drusilla: Carla di Censo. Nutrice/Famigliaro: Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Arnalta/Mercurio/Console: Thomas Michael Allen. Valletto/Amore: Amel Brahim-Djelloul. Damigella/Pallade: Mariana Ortíz. Lucano/Soldato/Console/ Famigliaro: Daniele Zanfardino. Liberto/Soldato /Tribuno: Fulvio Bettini. Littore/Famigliaro/Tribuno: Kai Uwe Fahnert. Concerto Vocale. This production had a very mixed reception when it appeared in Paris. There were those who complained of déjà vu and more of the same and those who found it a logical “sequel” to McVicar’s previous staging of Händel’s Agrippina , as Le nozze might be staged as a sequel to Il barbiere . But more of the same didn’t daunt me, as to me Agrippina was great. The underlying approach was the same: updating to...

Opéra National de Paris – Palais Garnier, February 17 2005 Conductor: Ivor Bolton. Production: David Alden. Poppea: Anna Caterina Antonacci. Nerone: Jacek Laszczkowski. Ottone: Christophe Dumaux. La Fortuna/Drusilla: Miah Persson. Ottavia: Monica Bacelli. Seneca: Robert Lloyd. Arnalta/Nutrice: Dominique Visse. La Virtù/Venere: Lucia Cirillo. Amore: Valérie Gabail. Pallade/Damigella: Jaël Azzaretti. Valletto: Barry Banks. Lucano/Primo soldato Pretoriano: Guy de Mey. Liberto/Secundo soldato Pretoriano: Topi Lehtipuu. Mercurio/ Littore: Antonio Abete. Soloists of the Freiburger Barockorchester - Monteverdi-Continuo-Ensemble. Mixed singing, but entertaining farce How things have changed in the past 30 years: the last time Poppea appeared at the Palais Garnier, in 1978, the cast included Jon Vickers, Gwyneth Jones, Christa Ludwig, and Nicolai Ghiaurov, in togas and surrounded by columns. 15 years ago, the opera was usually set in Mussolini’s Italy, with art deco palaces and leather coats,...