''L’incoronazione di Poppea was first performed in Venice during the carnival season in 1643. The original score has been lost and what survives is two copies from the 1660s. They differ from each other and also from the libretto. Whether Monteverdi wrote the opera on his own and if not how much was written by others and who they were, is open to debate. There are stylistic differences that seem to point to teamwork in one way or another. We must remember that the composer was 77 and that he died at the end of 1643. Anyway, after the carnival there was one documented revival and that was in Naples in 1651. After that it was only a title in some history books until the Venice score was unearthed in the 1880s. This led to an abridged concert performance in Paris in 1905, conducted by Vincent d’Indy and a first staged version in 1913. However, it was long a rarity in opera houses until the 1960s when Raymond Leppard’s edition was produced at Glyndebourne in 1962. There was a recording of a live performance in Zurich in 1954, conducted by the versatile Walter Goehr, and that recording even won a Grand Prix du Disque. I still have an LP with excerpts that I frequently listened to in my youth. The Leppard version, which was heavily cut was issued on HMV in 1964, conducted by John Pritchard. Richard Lewis and Magda Laszlo were Nero and Poppea. The first unabridged recording was the one in this box, issued in 1974. It was again criticised for what Denis Arnold called “over-ornamentation”, alluding to the lavish use of oboes and trumpets. I can imagine though that, since Poppea was written for the carnival, people expected some festivitas and what more festive than cheeky oboes and bragging trumpets?
In the cast we find a few of the names we know from the previous operas: Rotraud Hansmann as Virtù and Drusilla, Paul Esswood as Ottone and Kurt Equiluz in various comprimario roles. Several are new. Jane Gartner is a lovely Fortuna, Amore is sung by an unnamed soloist of the Wiener Sängerknaben, Giancarlo Luccardi is a magnificent Seneca – his farewell to his family is as moving as any I have heard – and then Cathy Berberian delivers another high-octane impersonation of the wronged Ottavia. The two main characters are, as in Il ritorno d’Ulisse, singers not normally associated with early music. Helen Donath was one of the loveliest lyric sopranos for several decades. Her Sophie in Solti’s Rosenkavalier was my first acquaintance with her and after that I have heard her in numerous other recordings of Mozart, of operetta, of lieder. Her Poppea is youthful-sounding and eager and well contrasted to the Nerone of Elisabeth Söderström. This remarkable soprano had a world career for forty years but all the time was loyal to the Stockholm Opera and covered all epochs and all styles in the soprano repertoire: a Mozartean, a Strauss specialist, the leading Janacek singer for decades and also a concert singer, not least in Scandinavian and Russian repertoire. Her distinctive timbre is immediately recognizable and not always the most beautiful in the world but few have matched her deep insight in the characters she interpreted. This Nerone stands out as a three-dimensional character and the only objection I have is that this is a woman in disguise. For her alone this whole set is a must-have and into the bargain we get three of the most rewarding baroque operas in, by and large, among the most rewarding recordings.'' MusicWeb International