A surfeit of sex, skulduggery and self-interest makes Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea the most deliciously amoral of operas. Laced with acid wit, it also happens to be very funny, a fact not always realised by director Walter Sutcliffe in this serviceable modern-dress production for the Grange festival.
Emperor Nero’s machinations to replace his obdurate wife, Octavia, with the coolly calculating Poppea are highly entertaining. Of course, there’s nothing new about politicians behaving badly, and Sutcliffe pulls off a couple of scenic updates brilliantly. Nero and Poppea have some of the most erotic language in all opera. Watching them sexting each other, their steamy words complete with mischievous emoticons projected overhead, is hilarious. Nero and Lucan drugging themselves up to the eyeballs also works a treat, the actors navigating a fine line between toxic masculinity and an awkward homoeroticism.
