A night at the opera with the incorrigible Poppaea by your side

It is already known that when you go to watch staging Calixto Benedict Anything could happen, but it never ceased to amaze me on Wednesday so soon after the start Poppy crowning de Monteverdi, at the Gran Teatro del Liceo, Fortune’s trousers would have (and deserve the phrase) nearly fallen on top of Andrew Lawrence King, harpsichordist for Le concert des Nations, and Jordi Savall’s orchestra interpreting the action from the pit. The musicians took it philosophically, but it was clear that some of the spectators were swallowing it. Soprano Rita Moraes, who plays Fortune with infectious joy, continued lowering her panties, the ones she’s been wearing, thankfully—a wary onlooker reminded her of Oppenheimer’s drama Countdown—a big overture (one on top of the other), and delivered them both as she sang: “Una.” An impeccably dressed man threw the others into his lap and kept his gaze back forward, barely gazing at his partner next to him, a well-groomed woman who could almost read her thoughts: “Don’t touch them, Jordi!”

We were then in a privileged place, a precarious place: in addition to throwing underpants, there was a moment when a revolver with a silencer was pointed at close range, Seneca ( Paso Nahuel de Piero (Gillette with blood splattered hand from his suicide, Cuckold Otto)Countertenor Xavier Sabata) transvestites for trying to kill Poppaea (French soprano Julie Fuchs) with heels, and finally a golden shower falls on us. And that is that our regions were in the rank of seats beloved, Installed at the same high school level for these functions which allows you to follow the performance as if you were a part of it. I haven’t tried anything interesting since playing a mute Egyptian priest in a blockbuster version of Aida. You can count the freckles on the back of Aussie David Hansen (Nero), who performs topless, and Drusilla (Seattle soprano Diana Brewick) for the disturbing detail of how body Black Mischief (Don’t confuse this Drusilla with the sister and mistress of Caligula who, to reach our shameless dreams, was played by actress Teresa Anne Savoy in the controversial and sun-drenched 1979 film by Tinto Brass).

The proximity made it possible to observe from an extraordinary distance, as well as a scene as intense as that of Nero pulling his pants If (Thobela Ntshanyana, who wore a single boxer short), the physicality of the vocal style, that miracle. Because of the location on the stage, an unexpected turn in front of the entire amphitheater opened up in front of him, the booths, the boxes and the floors. It inevitably felt noticed, and turned into something extra, unexpected. Instead of a suit, he would have been better off wearing a toga, although if you go to the circle at halftime, it looks weird with a tie.

Evelio P., who was like an arm of the sea and who had a seat in the aisle, seemed to be making a threesome with Nero and Poppea, who melted into embraces and kisses almost on his lap. Trio with Nero and Poppaea! Now this is a risky sport: you end up driving a conspiracy like Piso in 1965 and The Praetorians command you. Dressed in tight green, seductive, super sexy, strong and self-assured, Poppea is one of the best shows: she scurries around like a leopard, flaunts and gives glances and winks. You can’t ask all singers to work this way. Calixto (and Monteverde) can be thought to have gone too far in describing popia as unscrupulous climbing warming robes. But it seems that he really was.

Much has been said about Messalina (woman Claudius of Graves Nero’s stepfather), but less so than Poppaea, who has learned to fear Agrippina the Younger herself (Nero’s mother), who is already a mother-in-law. I have reviewed in Suetonio and Tacitus, to make us great, The Life of Poppea, and it is wonderful. By comparison, the thing about Calixto’s panties is (oops) nothing. “Another no less important case of insolence was that year (58) the source of the great evils of the Republic,” Tacito writes to introduce Sabina Poppea. She was the young daughter of Tito Olio, but used the name of her maternal grandfather, the former consul Bobo Sabino, “whose brilliant memory and who shone with the honor of victory”. His offspring was different: “This woman had all the qualities except an honorable soul.”

was originally from Pompeii So it is not surprising that it is volcanic to this extent. Undoubtedly very beautiful, Tacitus explains, “she inherited glory and beauty from her mother, and her speech was pleasant, and her wit not insignificant.” But, “however humble he seemed, in practice he gave himself up to dahara.” And he concludes: “He did not distinguish between husbands and lovers and transferred his passion to where it turned out to be useful.” Despite being married with a child, she became involved in an adulterous relationship with Otto and later married him. This (the future transiting emperor in 69, that great year), he presented it to Nero thinking he would win on points and it appears that, as Plutarch suggests, they put together a triumvirate (eg Evelio P., without going any further). But Poppaea sacked the game and seduced the emperor until he was mad with passion in a way which was not found in the lyre nor at the present time (see below), chariot races. Nero got rid of Otto by putting him in command of the province of Lusitania from which it is difficult to control the thoughts and comings of your wife, especially if you do not have a mobile phone.

An additional problem was – as the opera shows – that Nero himself was married to Claudia Octavia ( mizu Czech Magdalena Kozyna), the daughter of Claudio and Messalina, whose parents are really complicated. Finally, Nero divorced Octavia under the pretext of her sterility and got rid of her by sending her out of Rome on probation only to kill her later out of fear of her popularity. Recall that when the servants of the former empress Tigellinus, Nero’s man, were tortured so that he would make a false confession of the betrayal of her mistress to the Alexandrian flutist, one of them declared that Claudia’s sex was more chaste than his mouth. How interesting the classics are! Not to mention bathing in donkey milk (see Roma burnsby Stephen Dando-Collins, Ariel, 2012), which Calixto displays in videos on screens.

The bad chemistry between Poppea and Agrippina brought Nero into a head, who needed a little bit to power him (!). It is a pity that Agrippina does not appear in it Coronatione because he would have given Monteverdi more play, not to mention Calixto (A little bit of incest and parricide would have freshened the seats up even more beloved). The happiness with which the opera stylistically ends (although Calixto offers a hint of ill sentiment), does not last, as might be expected in life with someone like Nero. They lost a four-month-old daughter, and then “Popeye herself found her death in a fit of rage from her husband, who had kicked her when she was pregnant,” says Tacitus. Suetonius adds that it was because she blamed him for being late to the chariot race. We can imagine what Callisto would have done with that scene, given how Nero shakes Drusilla’s head on the stage floor when he thinks she tried to assassinate Poppaea (the moment that seems to make Savall swoon and unleash his unusual critique of the production).

It is curious that, according to Roman custom, Poppea was not burned, but mummified. Come on, the mummy of Poppaea must be there… Her death, Tacitus tells us, ‘was pleasant to those who have a memory, on account of her insolence and wildness’, what an elegy (Nero missed her so much that he unofficially married a young eunuch who looked like an empress: an anonymous terse lamented that his father had not. We prefer to keep a memory The wonderful popia of Julie Foxfresh and squishy (who would be so foolish as to prefer a mummy), in competition, yes, with that of Claudette Colbert in sign of the cross (1932), in which she tries to seduce the idealistic ruler Marco Superbio (Fredric March), more interesting than her husband Nero (Charles Laughton) – in her book about peplum Raphael from Spain recalls an anecdote that Cecil B. DeMille used real milk in Poppea’s bath and with the heat of the floodlights turned into cheese. Or the one with stunning green eyes and a cheetah-covered pen by Patricia Lavan alongside Peter Ustinov’s Nero V where are you going. If Messalina appears in several films (including one in which she is embodied by María Félix), Poppea, as can be seen, is not far behind in the cinema, and has given body to Brigitte Bardot! (in My son Nero), although some addresses, such as explicit addresses, should be forgotten biblums Poppea’s Hot Nights s Poppea, a prostitute in the service of the Empire.

You will be fortunate that just the day after the intense performance at the Liceo (a great success) a handful of people lived, among whom was the stage manager himself, Victor Garcia de Jomar (Very happy with Coronation), and another great stage director as Alex Uley, a musical evening at my sister and brother-in-law’s house around a ukulele (this time without flying panties). It was a concert with a beautiful 19th century neo-gothic harp from the house of Erard in Paris given by the young musician and composer Xavier Cuevas. He performed works by Bach, Handel, and Debussy, among others, and surprised with an enchanting composition created especially for the occasion.Water lilies in the stream. As Xavier’s fingers moved on the strings of his instrument, filling the night in the garden with fanciful colours, it was impossible not to think of the sensual memory of Poppaea and the other fingers – less kind and virtuous than those of the harpsichord player – playing their searing melody in the blazing glow of Rome.

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