On the strength of a masterful Orfeo in 2023, the Cappella Mediterranea conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon made an eagerly awaited return to Lanaudière with Monteverdi’s “other” opera, The Coronation of Poppea. A different work, conceived at the very end of the composer’s life (whereas Orfeo was written some thirty years earlier) and subject to commercial dictates unheard of for opera at the time.
But beyond all that, I was particularly charmed by soprano, Mariana Flores in the role of Octavia, a noble and somewhat haughty empress, humiliated by the rejection of her emperor husband and driven to plot like a villain to save her marriage and, above all, her title and reputation.
In an exquisite tight-fitting dress, she was as desirable as a queen should be in legend. But her Olympian presence gave her the appropriate emotional distance, betraying a character that Nero described as ‘frigid.’ An accusation often tinged with misogyny, but which here refers to the typical attitude of a matron from a prestigious and aristocratic lineage, whose scorned dignity can only be expressed by a certain contempt for the world. Yesterday, Mariana Flores had the most accomplished voice, the most qualitatively holistic, powerfully expressive in her anger, poignant despite her reserve in her ideal high-pitched murmurs. A voice without tonal flaw or timbral approximation. For your humble servant, the queen of the evening, despite her final downfall in the libretto.