Set at the court of the Emperor Nero as he schemes to replace his wife Octavia with his lover Poppea, Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea has a bleak and violent answer to the question, “How far would you go for love?”

With startlingly modern music and characterisation, Monteverdi’s opera was one of the first operatic masterpieces and a fitting showcase for a woman who reportedly said, “I hope I die before I get old” nearly 2000 years before the sentiment was immortalised by The Who.

Robin Norton-Hale directs this new production, with multi-genre musician and composer Yshani Perinpanayagam as conductor and arranger and a new English translation of the libretto from poet and Classicist Helen Eastman. Design comes from the award-winning Basia Bińkowska.

More details soon.

YP: Conductor