Was the wife of the Roman Emperor Nero as scandalous and scheming a person as her operatic portrayal suggests?
The Coronation of Poppaea was the choice for the opening evening at Glyndebourne this year and is being performed there until July. One of the earliest operas, it was written by Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi in 1642 and tells the story of how Poppaea Sabina seduces the Roman Emperor Nero to become first his mistress and then his wife. It has been described as "one of the sexiest pieces ever set to music" as well as "shockingly amoral" because Monteverdi portrays Poppaea as relentlessly ambitious in her desire to bed and win the Emperor and by the end of the opera her scheming is lavishly rewarded. But is it fair to Poppaea? Who was she? How did she climb to such power? Carrie Vout, Lecturer in Classics at Christ’s College Cambridge and Author of Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome, joins Jenni to shed light on whether or not Poppaea was a victim or a villainess of her time?
Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome by Caroline Vout is published by Cambridge University Press, ISBN-10: 0521867398 .
